BELMOPAN, Belize – The government of Belize has defended its decision to implement a policy that public officers must show proof that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by December 15 or face the risk of being marked absent from work and subject to disciplinary action.
Public workers get vaccinated in Belize. San Pedro Sun photo.Belize has recorded 558 deaths and 29, 501 positive cases linked to the virus since March last year.
A circular from the Public Service, Constitutional and Political reform, states that ‘for the safety of all public officers and the public serve, it has been decided that all essential workers and other public officers must be vaccinated by December 15, 2021”.
The move has been criticized by the president of the Public Service Union (PSU) Dean Flowers, said the union is in receipt of the memo saying it is “an instruction handed down” by “our dictatorial colleagues or friends or ministers coming out of cabinet.
“So the Ministry of Public Service, of course, simply carried out the instructions. Now the first thing that concerns us or that pops to our mind, of course, is on what basis does this circular become enforceable. There is no legal basis for it. “
But Health and Wellness Minister, Michel Chebat, Minister of Health & Wellness said vaccination for government workers is a direction being taken globally.
“If you take a look and you see what’s happening with the cases in this country, the amount of deaths that we are having, the vast amount of people who are dying are people who are unvaccinated.
“We continue to believe in the vaccination, we continue to believe that it is your first line of defense and so that certainly our public servants, our essential workers who are out there with the public the entire day, all day, we need to protect them.
“As you know, across the world, governments are moving to make sure that the public servants are fully vaccinated. And so, this is in line with really the global trend,” Chebat added.
Meanwhile, health authorities here said that as of November, 15, an estimated 208,168 people or 48.3 per cent had received at least one dose of the vaccine and 190,031 or 41.1 per cent have been fully vaccinated.
Additionally, 4,020 booster shots have been issued since the start of the booster shot program and is now opening booster shots to everyone. Also, the free testing sites, which were scheduled to close at the end of November, will continue to operate countrywide until the end of the year, according to a statement issued following the weekly Cabinet meeting.
It said also that Cabinet had approved recommendations from the Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations to make certain adjustments to the current COVID-19 public health measures to take effect November 22. It said these measures will be published shortly by the Ministry of Health & Wellness.
