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And those restricted movements are being manned by the police who've placed checkpoints at the entrances to all 3 villages. I got to see the checkpoint to Santa Marta firsthand.

This is the Santa Marta checkpoint on the old northern highway. It was set up at 6:00 this morning to make sure no one gets in or out of the village where a growing cluster of COVID cases has appeared.

This checkpoint had to be moved closer because shortly after they set it up, the cops found out about an alternate feeder road which leads into the village. And that's how it is in these rural farming communities - there's always more than one way in and out.

But for now, the road to Santa Martha can only be traversed by authorized personnel. That means police, BDF, and officials from the Ministry of Health.

And while the standard procedure is to isolate the virus, one area resident, lucky enough to be just outside the lockdown area, has a different opinion.

Eric Hines, Area resident
"The people that have the sickness they have to move them out of the village because if you don't move them out the rest of people will catch the virus. You have to try move they and take them somewhere else, I don't know where your gonna take them but the virus is deadly. Still yet the checkpoint will have to be there because the sickness is going on strong right now and a lot of people will catch it."

"No vehicle no pass because every time vehicles pass around these areas and everything close off because the virus is around. Some people go into the bush and they hide and when night comes out they come out and they have the sickness i'm trying to find out about them because the checkpoint is still up there."

And while Eric Hines tries to get to the bottom of all that, his mother, who lives nearby, is dealing with inconveniences of being caught just outside what has become an infected area.

Angela Hines
"I'm scared like how I have age they say I'm easy to catch it so better I stay home. Right now I want gas, gas ran out. My daughters don't want to come, they're scared to come to this side, we'll have to use fire heart at least fire heart serve because we can't come out and nobody's there to help me, so. We have to take it how it comes. We can't go out so we have to stay in and eat what we have, that's all we can do."

Cherisse Halsall:
"Do you know anybody in the village?"

Angela Hines
"Only my people with who I used to go to church on Saturday only them."

Cherisse Halsall:
"So when was the last time you went to church?"

Angela Hines
"Last week, last week but it's the Adventist church that I went to."

It seems a number of people went to church in Santa Marta last week, some of them came from what can be called the village's sister community in Maskall. It's a concern that we heard today from former village Chairman Herman Ramirez.

Herman Ramirez, Principal, Former Chairman
"Nobody is certain of what is happening and what has transpired knowing that we have people here that have relatives in Santa Martha, we also have churchgoers that are frequenting Santa Martha, last week we have a church from narrow bank that actually was very active in Santa Martha, so it's a possibility and something that we cannot leave without really having a good look at."

"There's an active traffic flow in terms of the Mennonite community in Newland and Santa Martha residents going to Belize City and so I think that yes we have people from Santa Martha coming into this community, they come here to work they come here to conduct a little shopping and some of them pass through this community then stop by and socialize a little bit then move on to Belize City to do their regular business or they may stop by on their way back so yes there is a regular traffic flow in terms of communiting between Santa Martha and Belize City, so Maskall is like a little stop point."

It's that reality that led to a village council decision to essentially lock off with only essential travel allowed, and checkpoints placed at both ends of the village.

And as for the bus that runs between the two communities, it's been discontinued until further notice.

Herman Ramirez, Principal, Former Chairman
"I think the situation is rather more of a scare for us because we weren't expecting this, especially in Maskall. It's rather unfortunate that it's coming here to us from what I hear it's in Santa Martha and if it's community spread then it's possible that it can spread to other communities like ours and I don't know how much this is going to assist us but I believe that a checkpoint will regulate the ins and outs of our community."

Ramirez was also concerned about Maskall's farming community which is one of the priority areas nationwide for food production. He hopes that the presence of the checkpoint can avoid a total lockdown of the region.

But Commissioner of Police Chester Williams believes that the village council is overstepping it's mandate saying quote:
"Kindly be advised that only the government of Belize can declare travel band restricting the movements of people across communities. No village, town or city council has no such authority….the police and BDF are responsible to ensure that no one goes in or out of this declared village. While we work to ensure that the objectives of the SOE is achieved we do welcome the assistance of the village council and the people of the declared community and neighbouring villages to work with us." End Quote.