Belize City Council Donates Over $9000 Worth of Masks for Eastern Division
Police officers are on the frontline of the COVID-19 fight, enforcing the regulations of the state of emergency. You see them stopping vehicles and making sure that the law is adhered to or you see them ensuring that business establishments and individuals are complying with the curfew. The face masks are now part of their uniform as they carry out their critical duties in public. So today, the Belize City Mayor made a significant donation of masks for the use of the Eastern Division of the Police Department. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Approximately nine thousand dollars worth of face masks were gifted today by the Belize City Council to the Eastern Division of the Belize Police Department. It translates to over one thousand six hundred reusable masks that will be issued to the police officers, who are also on the frontline of the COVID-19 situation in Belize. Mayor Bernard Wagner says that the pandemic has shifted the country’s perspective and the police have been identified as one of the heroes in keeping the citizenry safe.
Bernard Wagner
Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
“Recently, the Attorney General announced that the use of face masks in public has become mandatory; therefore, through collaboration with various business partners, we are pleased to present today these masks to eighteen police precincts across the district and the country of Belize. It is over sixteen hundred masks. One hundred and eighty masks will be delivered to precinct one, precinct two receives two hundred and fourteen; precinct three receives two hundred and eighty-eight; precinct four receives a hundred and eighty-seven; the Domestic Violence Unit receives forty-two masks; the Special Branch Support received twenty-one; the Community Policing Unit received seventy-two; the Hattieville Formation received one hundred and fifty-three and Ladyville receives one hundred and sixty. Caye Caulker Formation receives seventy-eight; the Traffic Support Unit receives twenty-seven, the Tourism Support Unit receives seventy-eight; CYDP receives eighteen; the CIB Support Unit receives twenty-one and the Regional Two Headquarters receives eighteen and the Narcotics Unit receives forty-five.”
Receiving the masks on behalf of the department was Deputy Regional Commander of the Eastern Division, Senior Superintendent Suzette Anderson, who says that it will help in the officer carrying out enforcement duties during this time.
Suzette Anderson
Sr. Supt. Suzette Anderson, Deputy Regional Commander, Eastern Division
“On behalf of the Commissioner of Police, the Belize Police Department and Eastern Police Division, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for having provided this donation. I am certain that the added donation of face masks is going to attribute to the best performance out there in the execution of our duties as we too fight against COVID-19 that is here currently in our nation. And I believe it is a crisis that will be with us for quite some time. So it is very much appreciated the contribution that you have provided to us today.”
Mayor Bernard Wagner says all the masks were made in Belize City with the help of business partners and his office.
Bernard Wagner
“The total cost is in the neighbourhood of nine thousand; but it is completely made in Belize City and so that facility was able to hire I guess between five to six seamstresses who really put together these masks. But they are three-layer type masks which gives the capability to be able as an officer when you are out there on the job, to be able to in the middle layer put a napkin if you want to filter even further and be able to change that. Each officer, based on our projection, will get like three masks out of the batches that we did.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
