No Locking Down of Orange Walk District

Dean Barrow

The steady increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 across the country, particularly in the north, as well as Belize District, has seen a climb to three hundred and sixty-six infections at present.  Despite a sharp rise in new cases, PM Barrow says that there is no immediate plan to effect another district-wide state of emergency for Orange Walk.  According to the prime minister, another total shutdown will only make matters worse for the economy which is still rebounding from the previous countrywide state of emergency.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“While, clearly, we keep the situation under constant review and while there are some additional measures that we’ll put in place, I and those whom we have consulted, including the members last night by telephone of the National Oversight Committee do not feel that it is anywhere close to being a situation where we must think in terms of locking down the entire country.  Madame Speaker, we know that we are still, from an economic point of view, reeling from the last lockdown.  Both the private sector, businesses throughout the private sector, they’re experiencing severe hardship as a consequence of the interruption and where government is concerned the revenue collapse continues. When you do the lockdown, you terribly exacerbate the impossible circumstances that already exist in terms of anything like normal economic activity.  So, ultimately, health comes first, but we must calibrate carefully and be sure that whatever we do is proportional.  So against that kind of a backdrop, contrary to what one radio station said last night, we are not locking down Orange Walk District.”