Musa on Removing Vaccination Requirement for Churches

Last week Anglican Bishop, Reverend Phillip Wright said the Anglican Church in both Belize and the region is pushing congregations get vaccinated against COVID.  One of the points of contention across denominations, however, is that while some church leaders say they will abide by the fifty percent maximum capacity for assembly, they view checking vaccination cards as discriminatory against the unvaccinated who wish to enter a place of worship. Some pastors who are fervently also against the jabs have also said they will not will not check vaccination cards. Today, Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, commented on the issue.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“That has been removed from the SI – the requirement that you have to be vaccinated to attend Church, I believe that has been removed already in this new S.I. There are other measures put in place to ensure there’s not this spread, regardless of your personal belief or your religious belief, which is why you have to have fifty percent and below in churches, you have to be socially-distanced, and you have to wear your masks at all times, so there are other measures put in place to counter if it is that particular pastors are not with the vaccination mandate. Based on the spread, we have to then decide at the end of each month what we can bend on, so this is something that is always changing from month to month. We are seeing a very slight decline, but not noticeable to that point, but we have heard the Churches’ concerns and we have made the adjustments to the S.I.”

Minister Musa said that if the rate of infection falls to under ten percent, then the curfew time can be pushed to a later hour.