ComPol Concerned About COVID Spreaders in Agro-Productive Sector

Chester Williams

While Blue Creek Mayor Abram Rempel has gone on record to say that the community remains COVID-free, Commissioner Williams contextualizes the incident by acknowledging that as members of the agro-productive sector, these persons visit the respective municipalities to conduct business.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The church leaders were eventually released from custody and they were warned for summons.  So I would want to think that between today and tomorrow they will be served for summons to appear in court.  I want to make this clear that when it comes to the enforcement of the Quarantine Regulations, the law places that burden on the police and I have seen Facebook posts where persons are saying that police need fu stop arresting people for foolishness and that there are bigger criminals running around who need to be arrested.  Let me make it emphatically clear that at this moment the COVID-19 virus is killing more of our people and more so outstanding people.  It is killing doctors, soldiers, teachers, businesspeople, while the gang violence is not doing that.  So at the end of the day, if you were to measure the two of them, I would want to think that fighting the COVID-19 virus should always be at the forefront of every Belizean mind.  We cannot to take this virus as a joke.  It is spreading like wildfire, particularly in the northern part of the country and these people from Blue Creek who are gathering, these people are part of the productive sector.  They are the ones who prepare our chicken, they are the ones who for the most part deal with agriculture products and so they leave Blue Creek and come into other parts of the country and if they are infected then they take their infection with them wherever they go and infect other people.”

As the matter plays out, a release has been issued by the P.U.P. strongly condemns the arrest of villagers of Blue Creek, saying the villagers were peacefully attending church on the sacred Sunday when the police arrested them.  The P.U.P. says it was completely unnecessary and that the matter could have been handled in a respectful manner. The P.U.P. calls on the department to exercise restraint in these very difficult times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.