COVID19 pandemic

With the alarming spike of countrywide cases of COVID-19, some Belizeans are asking for a national lockdown to contain the surge in infections. Although the idea of lockdowns has never sat well with Prime Minister Honourable John Briceño, on Monday, December 15th, he shared that the precaution has not been ruled out.

The total number of applications received under Phase 2 of the COVID-19 Unemployment Relief Program as of  September 28, is 64,252. Of these, 30,544 applications have been approved, all of which have been sent to the National Bank of Belize for payment. Total applications received 64,252 Number on Excluded list 13,019 Applicants requested to make corrections 3,447 Applications remaining to be reviewed 17,243 Total approvals so far 30,544 Applicants can check the status of their application using the following link on the Government of Belize’s covid19.bz website: https://payment.covid19.gov.bz/paymentstatus/. To seek information and clarification on their applications, applicants can also send an email to [email protected].

The total number of applications received under Phase 2 of the COVID-19 Unemployment Relief Program (URP) as of this morning, September 14, was 62,363. Of these, 20,197 applications have been approved and 18,364 payments were sent to National Bank of Belize for disbursement up to the end of last Friday. The remainder, which were approved during the past weekend, will be sent this morning. 

Payments under Phase Two of the Unemployment Relief Program began on August 24, 2020. Payments are already being rejected by commercial banks because the applicant’s banking information is incorrect or the account is inactive.

The UNDP programme, “Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean” (EnGenDER) has been working with implementing partners, stakeholders and donors over the last year to strengthen disaster risk management systems for 9 Caribbean countries and build resilience to the effects of climate change. This work is happening at a variety of levels, from improving central government’s ability build strategies for inclusive approaches to policy making to build resilience; to strengthening regional systems for planning and recovery from natural disasters; to community level interventions to ensure the vulnerable have what they need to so that that adaptation and mitigation actions in key livelihood sectors, such as agriculture, consider vulnerable persons.

San Pedro Town was one of the municipalities to receive humanitarian relief from the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Belize on Friday, June 26th, in the Capital City of Belmopan. Mayor Daniel Guerrero, along with the other Mayors from across the country, were on hand to receive the relief presented to the Belize Mayor’s Association, which included medical materials totalling $350, 000BZ.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has not been an easy thing for the San Pedro community to weather. In the noise of it all, many families have found themselves worrying about how to get food on their table and how they will survive through this sudden change in the system. ECI Development and Caye International Bank have partnered with Pastor Ian Zalidvar and the Living Word Church in San Pedro to help lead the way in bringing food relief to the people of Ambergris Caye.

The COVID-19 Repatriation Committee, comprising of the ministries responsible for Health, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Human Development, and ultimately, National Security, organized the domestic arrangements for repatriation including identification and cite assessments of the quarantine facilities, negotiation of rates, training, assigning health officers and Belize Defence Force Officers for the returning Belizeans, as well as COVID-19 testing. To date, 570 applications have been received from Belizeans abroad who wish to return home. Of the applications received, 239 were from Belizeans in the USA seeking to return home, 35 are in Mexico, 32 in Guatemala, 20 in Peru, 19 in Cuba, 19 in Honduras, 17 in the UK, 14 in El Salvador, 11 across France, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and The Netherlands, six in Guyana, six in Taiwan, 11 in Jamaica, four in Costa Rica, one in Panama, seven in India, four in Bolivia, three in Barbados, two in Colombia, one in Lebanon, one in Saudi Arabia, one in United Arab Emirates, one in The Philippines, one in Nigeria, and one travelled from Tanzania.