Restaurants and Churches Reopen to Limited Customers and Congregants

Michael Peyrefitte

With a limit of only ten patrons or congregants, restaurants and churches can once again reopen, however, there are clear rules that speak to licenses in order to operate such businesses in the case of restaurants.  As far as churches, the AG says that a celebrant and his acolytes are allowed along with ten parishioners, notwithstanding the size of the church.

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General

“Well currently, as you know, churches are not allowed to operate, nor restaurants, whether indoor or outdoor.  So we decided, the [National Oversight] Committee, along with Cabinet decided that the time has come for us to do a soft opening of those places.  The churches, no more than ten people in the congregation.  Of course you’ll have the pastor and his or her assistants.  Restaurants, there’s no more than ten people in the whole restaurant, no matter what the size.  If you have a huge restaurant, you still can only have ten people.  If you have a small restaurant that cannot hold ten people being six feet apart for ten people then clearly you cannot have ten.  But if you have the space, you’re allowed up to ten with the proper social distancing and masks when you’re not eating.  You must have a restaurant license to operate and it must be by reservations.  So those are the things that we think we can do at this point.  Like I always say, how we go, how much we open up depends on our behavior now.  So lately, we have been behaving a little badly and so we had to become very strict.  We don’t want to be strict, we don’t like to be strict but protecting the Belizean people against this pandemic is the ultimate goal of the government, so we will go as strict as we need to get.”