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And while some schools are ready to go, they cannot be more eager than gym owners.   Earlier this week, several of them signed unto a list of suggestions for sanitary measures they are willing to take to make sure their gyms remain COVID free. 

The gym owners insist that they are able to implement protocols to minimize that risk and that they are able to ensure that their clients observe strict social distancing. They also assert that their customers also need to remain healthy. 

Well, the Director of Health Services explained why the Government is still concerned about allowing gyms to re-open:

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Service
"I did get that letter on Sunday night and I passed it on to the oversight committee Monday morning. Now that doesn't address all the gyms, I think it's only about 9 or 10. The key question there is how you go about regulating gyms and ensuring that what you are placing there is in fact what is going to be adhere to. Once you are in a gym, there is sweat, people might be breathing with their mouth open, there are aerosols being produced. That's the key situation, people can socialise, people have music, touching all their gadgets, touching all the equipment and I know there is measures, we have been to gyms where they give you the specific towel that you're suppose to clean after you leave, people can go and shower and all those things but it's not really adhere to. Now these are the gyms that seem to be much more structured but how do you then go about controlling all those other gyms that are not part of this coalition and to be honest, in health, that's the key concern, we don't have the human resources to be manning all the quarantine facilities, all the hotels, all the restaurants that are now starting to open and how you keep that social distance aspect. Talking about gyms, I know the question came up about churches, we did not get a chance to address that. I can tell you that in the meeting, we did ask from the council of churches if they will have more or less a census of how many churches there are in Belize. In the community I live, I think there is about 15 churches and there are two restaurants. This not only an economic situation, restaurants are easier for us as public health to regulate, why? Because your food handlers certificate, you need a license, you are registered, you need to meet certain requirements but nobody seems to know in the community where I live how many churches there are, when they congregate, how many people go to the congregation. So health again, cannot be going through all of this process of mapping out where all these facilities are."

There is still no clear date that has been identified for when all gyms countrywide will be allowed to resume operations.