Non-contact sports to return; gyms and bars stay closed as Attorney General counsels Belizeans to continue to behave responsibly 

By Aaron Humes: The Attorney General dashed some hopes on Wednesday that with the re-opening of the Philip Goldson International Airport, additional measures to accommodate the arrival of visitors to Belize will be introduced, including the re-opening of bars, nightclubs, and gyms.  

Michael Peyrefitte confirmed to reporters, “I know that I’ve been instructed to amend the statutory instrument (S.I.) to allow for non-contact sports to occur which is pretty much just tennis, golf, table tennis.  Unfortunately, gyms and bars cannot yet open and we know that we are trying to sanction some gold standard hotels for people who will be flying in.  So at these hotels where they have restaurants and bars, the ones that have restaurant licenses, these are the ones that will be allowed to have ten people or less for dining in and if you can’t have ten or less, you don’t have space, then you’ll have to do take out or delivery or drive-thru.  The bars that will be open at hotels will only be open to people staying there.  But in general, only restaurants can have dining in, all other establishments can do takeout or delivery.” 

The Attorney General readily agreed that the place of relaxation is “slow.” But, he added, “I’ve said over and over and over, how quickly we move to relaxation depends on how well we behave now. We have been doing well; there was a huge surge earlier but we still have too many cases for comfort. One case is too much for comfort but when you start to get thirty, fifty active cases then it’s really a cause for concern. So, we do not believe that we can relax even a little bit at this point, so we’re trying to at least work with the situation to allow very minor things to start to occur again. How quickly, and how much we relax, will be dependent on how we behave over the next week or two.” 

Peyrefitte observed that even with the increase in recovered cases and partial solution to the border jumping problem, the mandate remains the same: wash your hands, be socially distant, wear your mask, and in general avoid exposure to the virus. 

The changes are expected to be presented by a statutory instrument. 

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Belize ~ We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages. Your content is delivered instantly to thousands of users in Belize and abroad! Contact us at mаrkеtіng@brеаkіngbеlіzеnеwѕ.соm or call us at 501-612-0315.

© 2020, BreakingBelizeNews.com. Content is copyrighted and requires written permission for reprinting in online or print media. Theft of content without permission/payment is punishable by law.