New Curfew in Time for Christmas Holidays

Kareem Musa

There are new COVID-19 measures being implemented going into the Christmas holidays, including a nightly curfew that will keep most Belizeans inside their homes at eight o’clock.  The announcement of new measures came this morning during a press conference held by the ministries of Health and Wellness and Home Affairs.  While an existing ten o’clock curfew expires on Saturday morning, another comes into effect on Sunday night and there is no definitive date as to when it will be lifted.  Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa outlines the curfew which also includes a separate restriction of movement for minors.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“We will now be having a nationwide curfew and that is starting on the twentieth of December and it will commence at eight p.m.  So eight p.m. every evening you are to be at home and that goes until five a.m. the following morning.  Minors, anybody under sixteen years of age, must be at a residence or their home that they’re staying by six p.m.  So it is different for minors, you have to be home by six p.m. and that curfew extends to five a.m. the following morning.  This curfew of eight p.m. excludes workers in the following professions: the security forces, Customs and Excise Department, the Department of Immigration Services, frontline healthcare providers with the Ministry of Health or any other essential worker issued a badge by the Minister of Home Affairs.  So everybody else has to be at home by eight p.m., minors by six p.m.”