That was a press conference this morning, and this afternoon, the Attorney General appeared on "Ask The Experts" where he specified the rules for swimming, which includes the use of face masks, until the swimmer actually enters the water.
Here's how the AG explained it:
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte - Attorney General
"All public pools, beaches and rivers are open to the public for the specific purpose of swimming on the following conditions: what are we opening the pools, rivers and seas for? to swim and remember for the people who want to scuba dive or snorkel they can snorkel, but even when you go to the river or sea you must strictly adhere to social distancing protocols except as it relates to parents or guardians and their children and to persons of the same party. So if 4-5 people want to go to swim at sea or river and you have a young child and you want to dip the child in the river or sea, clearly you have to be close to that child. No more than 10 persons in the same party or the same group can go together at any one time at the river and swim and hang out by the river. Social gatherings, parties, picnics, barbeques or other similar socials activities are prohibited. You go to the river and the sea to swim. We are still not at the stage where we want to encourage people to go hang out unnecessarily."
"Where swimming in a sea or river entails the use of a boat or other vessel, people can now use their private boats to go to caye to swim, to go to sandbar to swim or wherever it is you like to swim you can now use your boat. However, the boat shall be limited to seating capacity. So if your boat only could hold 8 people, only 8 people are to be in that boat and everybody who is not swimming have to wear a mask. So when you jump in the boat at Belize City or in Boom or wherever you have boat, you go down the river until you start to swim in the boat, everybody must wear a mask."
Email
Print