State of Emergency regulations became literally stifling over the weekend when the wearing of face or mouth coverings was made law - and infractions punishable by large fines.
It's for public health and the common good, but for many the law has been a challenge to abide by, but, abide they must or face those frightening fines.
Today Cherisse Halsall went to court to find many facing just that - and she examined the wider problem of wearing masks, but doing it the wrong way:
All these people waiting outside of court this morning weren't there for murder, robbery, theft, or any of major crimes.
Most were there for the state of emergency violations.
The cops picked up this man for failure to wear a mask.
Santos Martinez - Facing Charge For Failure to wear a (mouth) covering while in public. "I was along with my friends. We were there by the first shop by our house to get our masks and prevent ourselves but these guys don't want to hear anything. They just want to mess the people up. Because the government only gave us a dollar plantain and now they expect to get a thousand back that's not right. These gentlemen the police officers tried to charge me for the law. Mandatory masks were not due and he's trying to charge me for it the 30th. We need to get institutions from above to help us because they're doing a lot of changes that aren't fair. And Belizean people need help, they don't need to get charged."
And while he's facing a fine of thousands of dollars, wearing a mask according to rules is tough.
The Prime Minister alone touched his mask over one hundred times in a 30-minute interview and the CARPHA rules say that if you touch your mask by mistake you should immediately wash your hands. But that's hard to stick to and Belize's leading public health official also has his concerns.
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services "I would hate to think that we think a mask covers it all, physical distancing, the handwashing, the avoid touch of your face, it's going to be much more important than wearing a mask - I have said also that I'm a little bit concerned and worried when you walk the street or drive-through and you just see people wearing masks inappropriately so that in point of fact potential benefits can give you other headaches because you have other diseases. I did say also that we would have to have some level of discipline. Some level of the educational process as we move along to wearing a mask. I know that there's some level of anecdotal evidence that seems to work but I also said that It's more disciplined societies that have used it for an extended period. Asian societies have seemed to thrive much better and I have not seen any public health agency other than CDC make a recommendation for the use of masks at least in the western hemisphere. So for us, it will allow us to go back and see how we can educate people, can't forget the physical distancing can't forget the handwashing and look at the mask situation for sure."
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