A debate is raging on social media about whether or not parents are prepared to send their children back to school on January tenth. The Ministry of Education continues to review and has given the green light to a number of schools to reopen for the semester using a hybrid learning model – that’s where […]
During an interview with Chief Executive Officer Dian Maheia of the Ministry of Education, she told News Five children have experienced learning losses over the almost two years of distance learning. But how bad is it? She says the educational gap can only be determined when children are back in the classrooms so that an […]
And then there is the reality that many children have dropped out of school. Since last year, we have been reporting that a number of children have been lost to the system and for varied reasons. C.E.O. Maheia says that that true amount will only be determined when on campus in-person classes resume. The Ministry […]
The staff at K.H.M.H. is fighting its own wave of infections. Currently, some twenty staff members at the hospital are out with COVID-19. That number could rapidly increase, which would potentially leave the hospital’s operation in limbo. C.E.O. Cansino told us more. Chandra Cansino, C.E.O., Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital “That is one of the […]
While active COVID-19 cases are currently above two thousand, the number of persons admitted to the COVID Unit at the K.H.M.H. right now is low. As of Tuesday, only twelve persons were admitted, and only five of them are actually COVID-positive. There are concerns for the unvaccinated, however, because they account for forty percent of […]
An appeal has been lodged by Waterloo Investments Holdings Limited to challenge a decision by the Department of Environment which has denied environmental clearance for its proposed tourism development project near the Port of Belize. The appeal has been made to Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Orlando Habet. Notwithstanding D.O.E.’s […]
Your next light bill will more than likely be higher than what it was last month, whether or not you dressed your house for the recent Christmas holidays. The Public Utilities Commission (P.U.C.), in a press release issued today, announced that effective this month and running until June, the Mean Electricity Rate (M.E.R. for short) […]
Following COP26 and other efforts to boost Belize’s sustainable development, the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development, and Investment announced it has created a Climate Finance Unit. The C.F.U. comes on stream as of January third and is intended to streamline the process for those wishing to access climate financing and assist the government in carrying […]
The Social Security Board and its N.H.I. Department has partnered with the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to provide affordable treatment for cancer patients. S.S.B. invested one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in medication for those battling colon, lung, stomach, breast and prostate cancers. N.H.I. tendered and procured the medications which were handed over to the […]
These medications will be available at a lower cost at the hospital, because N.H.I. was able to negotiate a discounted price. Chandra Cansino, C.E.O. at K.H.M.H., explained that prior to this purchase, patients were required to pay much high prices for medication outside the hospital. Chandra Cansino, C.E.O., Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital “As you […]
Two former Ministry of Health C.E.O.s are now employed at the National Health Insurance Department. Doctor Ramon Figueroa, the General Manager of N.H.I., was the C.E.O. at ministry under former U.D.P. Minister Pablo Marin, when he was transferred to N.H.I. While information at the time suggested that Marin and Figueroa had a strained working relationship, […]
Like government departments across the nation, the National Health Insurance’s budget was reduced at the onset of the pandemic. This no doubt affected the quality of healthcare the most vulnerable population was able to receive. Their budget has since been reinstated, which has led to certain modifications. Dr. Figueroa shared further details about the future […]
The rapid proliferation of the Omicron variant across the country will undoubtedly affect frontline workers, including police officers who are tasked with keeping law and order amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout last year, dozens of officers were out at various intervals on sick leave as a result of contracting the virus. With the introduction of […]
Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa, his wife Carla, and the couple’s eleven-year-old son, contracted COVID-19 during the Christmas holidays. The family was pretty much quarantined for the better part of fourteen days. While both parents are fully vaccinated, the minor is at the moment ineligible to receive his shots. When he came down with the […]
The final tally for the number of homicides committed in 2021 is yet to be released by the Belize Police Department. Nonetheless, we asked the Minister of Home Affairs for an unofficial comparison with figures from the previous year. According to Kareem Musa, the total number of murders recorded in 2021 stands at one hundred […]
This morning at the Department of Youth Services in Belize City, the Leadership Intervention Unit met to chart a way forward for the next twelve months. As we reported a few weeks ago, an initial retreat was held at Camp D’Silva in Mountain Pine Ridge where at-risk youths from at least two communities participated in […]
The Belize Central Prison currently boasts a significantly smaller population that it did only eight years ago. The facility, which is managed by the Kolbe Foundation, houses adult men and women and male youths. But while the general population in Belize has been growing, what has caused the prison population to shrink over the years? […]
January is often the time when people need to update their driver’s license, vehicle license and insurance. And if you are one of those people where your documents have expired or are about to expire, you better jump on it. That’s because traffic wardens and transport officers are being asked to become more vigilant countrywide. […]
Driving under the influence of alcohol is a criminal offense. And, since December of 2021, the Department of Transport has been using breathalyzers on the nation’s highway to identify persons drunk-driving. But is the traffic department using them? On the Phone: Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport “Breathalyzers are in effect since December. We have […]
Today is World Braille Day, commemorating the birthday of Louis Braille, a French educator who became blind at a young age and invented a system of reading for the visually impaired. Equipping blind students with the technology to learn Braille is one of the many services provided by the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired, […]
As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people are wondering how much longer we will need to follow protocols, especially keeping our masks on. In fact, a lot of us are really tired of having to wear these. But as a member of the COVID-19 Task Force, Doctor Marcelo […]
And while he was on Open Your Eyes, Doctor Coyi shared something that medical professionals know, but which may be new to the public: you can get a combination of two COVID-19 variants at the same time. He also explained that people’s behaviour will dictate how the pandemic plays out, both for individuals and the […]
