Cordel Says Thirty Days Would Have Been Better

Cordel Hyde

Lake Independence Area Rep., Cordel Hyde was in favour of a thirty-day extension. In speaking on the motion to extend the existing state of emergency for an additional sixty days, Hyde pointed to the massive economic impact that the countrywide shutdown has had on citizens, restricting movements and possibly citizen’s rights. Hyde also said that reopening the economy should come with extensive testing to ensure that the Ministry of Health has a handle on the COVID-19 situation, despite businesses resuming daily operations.

Cordel Hyde, Area Representative, Lake Independence

“When I heard on Wednesday that the motion would be presented here at the house for the state of emergency to be extended for sixty days, I immediately said, nah.  We should do it for thirty days and if needs come back then we come back to the house after thirty days for this reason, because I felt that the last few weeks have been rough on the Belizean people and I felt almost instinctively that they would have cringed at the thought of sixty more days, like the previous few weeks.  So if for only that reason I felt like we should have in the first instance say thirty days and if needs be we come back and extend it for however long we think it is required.  And I still think that, but I also know that we should be absolutely honest with the people of Belize because we are not out of the woods yet and I am afraid that the last few days of no, of this victory lap of no new cases of this talk of easing restrictions have began to give our people a false sense of security.  I know that in the previous days, the previous weeks, I had began to see a lot of people wearing masks outside and over the weekend I feel like that prevalence of mask has dissipated a bit. What we know for a fact Madame Speaker, is that opening up of our economy or easing of restrictions have to be accompanied with robust testing.  There has to be testing, testing, testing so that the truest picture of what’s out there is revealed to us.”