San Pedro is Under 72 Hours State of Emergency

Dean Barrow

Earlier today, Governor General Sir Colville Young signed a statutory instrument bringing into effect a state of emergency for Ambergris Caye.  Under the regulations for the state of emergency everyone is expected to practice social distancing.  Travel to and from the island has also been prohibited for the next seventy-two hours.  Gatherings have also been limited to ten persons at any given time within public and private spaces.  Anyone who comes down with flu-like symptoms and who may have had contact with someone afflicted with the virus must immediately inform the Ministry of Health.  Persons found in contravention of the regulations are liable for imprisonment for up to one year.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“In terms of the measures that we have already implemented and the fact that we now need to make absolutely certain that people comply, I will tell you that already the Solicitor General is in the process of drafting regulations that will impose a penalty on those that don’t comply with the measures that we have prescribed.  The oversight committee will look at possibly an even broader canvas and I don’t want to get ahead of them but I believe, it’s safe to say from now that bars, clubs, casinos, I don’t see how those can be allowed to continue to open.  And insofar as grocery stores, supermarkets, there will have to be the monitoring on the part of the owners of these properties, personnel being stationed at the entrances to control the flow of customers and to ensure that there is a line outside, there is a distance between the persons forming that line.”