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The few who have left the island include persons who require dialysis, who are pregnant and who have congestive heart failure. 

And while movements off the island are tightly controlled, movements on the mainland are getting there, and that’s because the entire COVID-19 crisis is keeping students and workers at home.  That’s reducing commuter traffic, making some runs financially unsustainable for bus operators. 

And then there is the sudden fear of crowds; many regular commuters just don’t feel safe being on a jammed bus rubbing shoulders and sharing tight spaces with fellow commuters. 

And to allay those fears, the Department Of Transport has put in sanitary measures. We saw those today at the Belize City Bus Terminal where persons boarding buses had to first wash their hands with soap and water provided at the bus station. That hand washing is one safety measure. But in the era of social distancing is it enough? We asked Manzanero if people should feel safe riding the bus.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"The bus station, how likely is it for someone to contact on public transportation if there is no community transmission. At this point in time, the risk seems to be rather low, so I know that the recommendation has been that public transportation sanitises the bus properly after the passengers have come off and you even go and sanitise your area when you're going to be boarding a bus or after you leave the bus. Again that's not just for COVID 19, so even the enforcement that we're doing in terms of sanitising the bus, sanitising all these other areas that we come in contact with, I think those are not just for COVID 19, if we saying that for the next 12 or 18 months it's going to happen, it's going to be the norm as we go along in that regard."