Belmopan resident Guillermo Foreman remains stuck at the northern border. He has been there since Friday after he made his way from the United States through Mexico. He was in Texas and decided to drive to Belize after he realized that he was running out of funds. He says that he had no idea that […]
One last issue on the tourism industry…In his press conference last week, Prime Minister Dean Barrow spoke about the repatriation of Belizeans stranded in other countries. They are expected to return to the country by the end of May. But we are told that securing hotels rooms has become a problem to quarantine the returning […]
The Public Service Union and the Belize National Teachers will meet with the Prime Minister, Dean Barrow on Wednesday to iron out issues regarding the government’s proposed cost-saving measures. G.O.B. is proposing that public servants including teachers forego their increment while ministers give up a month’s salary. Ministers, C.E.O.s, and Heads of Departments will also […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed further light on the critical work that nurses do to save lives. International Nurses Day was observed today across the globe to recognize the noble job of nurses. Nurse Deborah Latchman of the Belize Healthcare Partners Limited has been at the frontlines for forty-three long years. She says, the hours […]
National Nurses’ Week is celebrated from May sixth through to May twelfth. On the culmination of this globally recognized event, today the Acting Deputy Director of Health Services Ann Matute appeared on Ask the Experts webcast and paid tribute to the frontline workers. Ann Matute, Acting Deputy Director of Health Services “In Belize, nurses […]
One of the pressing challenges facing the healthcare system in Belize is that there is a shortage of nurses. Currently there are eight hundred and ninety eight active nurses, with ninety-five percent female and five percent male. But even with almost nine hundred nurses, according to the world standards there is a still a shortage. […]
So, hospitals are understaffed as it relates to nurses, which results in nurses being overworked. And because of this, many nurses may experience fatigue and other stresses that come from working long hours in an already high-intensity environment. So, how does the ministry support nurses’ mental health? Eleanor Bennett, Registrar, Nursing and Midwives Council […]
The Belize-Indian community made an eight thousand dollars donation for underprivileged families who are feeling the economic pinch as a result of COVID-19. That eight grand is only a fraction of the total donation which is valued at eighty thousand dollars and being distributed over the span of several weeks. The families are being helped […]
BELTRAIDE is taking its competitiveness month activities online. It’s the unit’s approach to adapt to the current state of affairs due to COVID-19. BELTRAIDE and its partners will hold a number of online workshops and webinars to help business to navigate these challenging times to ensure their economic survival. Executive Director of BELTRAIDE Leroy Almendarez […]
Across the country, thousands of primary school students remain at home where they have been since March twentieth when classes were called off due to the COVID-19 threat. The extended quarantine has seen innovations in the social media space where Facebook and Instagram users are hosting their own shows to entertain and educate each other. […]
An ambulance was stopped by heavily armed police at the Hattieville junction on Sunday afternoon. It was coming from Hopkins in the south and was transporting a patient accompanied by her daughter. A woman inside the ambulance was heard pleading that her mother was ill. The scary sight of the police drawing their weapons at […]
Even though the police department found out that the ambulance was in fact transporting a patient, and so the life of a the patient was at risk, the Commissioner of Police is demanding an apology from Southern Emergency Services for the manner in which the ambulance driver reportedly conducted himself at the checkpoints. On the […]
Belize has passed its first wave of COVID-19. But don’t expect that things will go back to normal immediately. Coming out of today’s meeting of the National Oversight Committee, it is anticipated that some of the restrictions will be relaxed, such as the re-opening of hotel restaurants and use of its facilities. But curfew hours, […]
A joint meeting between Prime Minister Dean Barrow, the Public Service Union and the Belize National Teachers’ Union is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. The meeting will revolve around G.O.B.’s cost-saving measures proposed to these unions and the Association of Public Service Senior Managers, which according to the Prime Minister, is in support of […]
Also on Friday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow stated that ministers, chief executives officers and heads of departments will also be making a sacrifice which is much more than what public officers are contributing. P.S.U.’s Dean Flowers says that the Prime Minister needs to check his facts before going before a microphone. Dean Flowers, First […]
The Belize National Teachers’ Union is yet to form an official position on the government’s cost-saving measures proposal. The waiving of increments will also affect the thousands of teachers and the National President, Senator Elena Smith agrees with the P.S.U. In speaking with News Five today, Smith says that for years the government was being […]
In a letter sent to the President of the P.S.U. by Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight, the union is told that if it continues to reject the proposal, the prime minister will use the power of his office. Waight says that the PM will proceed to advise the Governor General to amend the Public Service Regulations […]
According to the Prime Minister, the ministers will be giving up fifty percent of their entertainment allowance, which is a monthly sum they receive to host international guests as well as their thousand-dollar telephone monthly allowance. But do ministers actually spend a thousand dollars on telephone every month? We asked the union leaders today. […]
As we reported on Friday, former Prime Minister Said Musa was hospitalized after a mild stroke on Thursday night. The seventy-six-year-old For George Representative continues in the hospital tonight. His son Kareem, who is the Caribbean Shores Area Rep, posted to say that the former PM is in good spirits. While the Musa family is […]
There was a home invasion in Ladyville in which an elderly man was brutally stabbed multiple times. Sixty-one-year-old Michael Avilez was inside him house when two persons stomped in the door and robbed him of one hundred and ten dollars, but not before gun butting him to the head and stabbing him twice to the […]
And there is trouble at the border points. Up north, the Mexicans don’t want him, and the Belizean authorities won’t let him enter his own country. Tonight Guillermo Foreman finds himself stateless, stuck at the border with Mexico. He made his way to the Belize/Mexico border after leaving the USA and says he has been […]
An American national was busted up north for entering Belize illegally over the weekend via the Corozal Free Zone. According to police, the man was intercepted while attempting to make his way through a hole in the fence of the compound. He was immediately detained and taken into quarantine where he managed to escape from […]
Tensions ran high this morning across the western border, in Melchor de Mencos, where Guatemalan drivers blocked the bridge. While the borders remain close, cargo is allowed into the country. Since the crisis started, the process is that routinely, a nurse would check the drivers for COVID-19 symptoms, if there are none then the drivers […]
Even though it is now twenty-eight days without any new confirmed case of COVID-19, a state of emergency remains in place for the country. Thousands have already been charged for offenses under the emergency power regulations and over the weekend, an additional one hundred and fifty-six persons were added to the list. Sixty-three persons failed […]
A Guatemalan labourer is in big trouble with the law tonight for a slew of firearm offenses. Police say that on Sunday in Santa Cruz Village, Stann Creek District, Geovanni Castro was discovered with three firearms, one of which is a high-powered rifle with a scope that is prohibited in Belize; he was also found […]
