No More Tests: Public Officers Have Until Dec 15 to Get Vaccinated

In October, the Prime Minister said it was coming and today the Ministry of the Public Service made it official: all public officers must be vaccinated by December fifteenth or risk being marked absent and subject to disciplinary action. Negative COVID-19 tests will no longer be accepted in lieu of at least a first jab after that date. A copy of the officer’s vaccination card must be shown by December fourteenth, according to the circular from C.E.O. Rolando Zetina’s office. Viewers may recall the Prime Minister’s comments on Channel Five’s Open Your Eyes on October fifteenth.

[File:October 15, 2021] Prime Minister of Belize, John Briceño

John Briceño

“We will have by the end of this year, one of the recommendations are, is that all the frontline workers will have to be vaccinated. This about go and get test and come back, you now have to be vaccinated to go into the work place, to go into the restaurants. As it is right now restaurants are, inside dining are fifty percent but they must be vaccinated.”

Viewers will recall that the Government has done an about-face on the restaurant vaccination mandate after objections from the tourism sector. This regulation is being lifted after the Garifuna Settlement Day weekend. The fifty percent capacity for inside dining remains in effect.