Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Thursday announced that following a special Cabinet meeting, he’s establishing a COVID-19 Task Force and a COVID-19 National Oversight Committee.
Belize as yet he said, had no confirmed cases from the global pandemic “but this is an ever-evolving-situation. The public health, social and economic ramifications are such that absolute focus and the greatest concentration of effort are required to grapple with them.”
Leader of the Opposition John Briceno has accepted the invitation to serve as co-chair of the COVID-19 National Oversight Committee and it should have representatives from the Belize Council of Churches, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Belize National Network of NGOs, the Belize Social Security Board and the National Trade Union Congress of Belize.
The National Oversight Committee will provide “ultimate overall supervision of Belize’s efforts to deal with COVID-19,” Prime Minister Barrow said, but the day to day public health response will remain the principal responsibility of the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Task Force.
Its first meeting is scheduled for this coming Monday, when it will hear from the Governor of the Central Bank of Belize, the Financial Secretary, and the CEO of the Ministry of Economic Development. It is tasked with mapping out the necessary response to deal with the impacts of the crisis on employees, employers and all sectors of the Belize economy. Those include PM barrow said “… emergency aid to workers; a possible tax payment extension; a supplementary allocation for Corona-related outlays; duty-free importation of essential supplies; a moratorium on loan repayments at banks and credit unions; and post-Corona stimulus by even more accelerated capital spending, salary advances, etc.”
Thursday’s press conference was also attended by the Director of Health Services Dr. Marvin Manzanero, who will chair the COVID-19 Task Force. It will be comprised of representatives from frontline government and quasi-government agencies and will seek assistance from the governments of Cuba and Taiwan, countries with whom Belie have had longstanding bilateral agreements and relationships.
Barrow said that decisions on whether or not to allow cruise ships to enter, whether or not to disallow large gatherings, whether or not to close schools, whether or not to ban air travel and whether or not to restrict freedom of entry at our land borders will be taken only when absolutely necessary.
“These are not easy decisions to make given the obvious and astronomical impact they would have on us and the economy, especially tourism,” he told the nation, “but nothing is more important than preserving the health of our people; nothing is more important than saving Belizean lives. I did not want to announce any such decision today without putting our country, as well as those that visit and service Belize, on notice. But I advise now that immediately after this press conference I will be meeting with the health team and speaking to the Leader of the Opposition. I will, of course, also be talking to tourism and business stakeholders.”
“Shortly thereafter I would expect to announce when, not if, any or all of the cited measures will go into effect.”
While Belize has not yet had any confirmed cases. Dr. Marvin Manzanero revealed that the Ministry of Health’s surveillance team had tracked and tested 11 suspected cases since January and all have been determined to be negative for COVID-19.
