Of course, opening the airport in the COVID era is not just an isolate act - it involves many players from customs, to immigration, to health, to baggage handlers.
On Friday when 90 Belizeans were repatriated multiple accounts say it did not go well.
On Friday we asked the PM about the shortage of Public Health inspectors...
Jules Vasquez
"Speaking specifically about the central region and the unavailability of public health inspectors, if the airport were to have open today we wouldn't have enough public health inspectors to handle it. I raised all this simply to ask additional funds have not been made available for the hiring of extra staff. Funds have not been spent on that, lavish funds have been set aside for this tracking device which I understand would be rented for 6 months, I am told a million dollars this tracking device that people would put on their hands or the Mike Singh geo fencing fantasy, are you able to speak about the priorities for the government in terms what really is the priority?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Both priorities. I would agree with you if you are suggesting that the additional hires that are clearly necessary in terms of the human resources would be the number one priority, you won't get any argument from me. What I will not agree with you with is any suggestion you make that government is not prepared to fund, to pay for these additional hires. There is a decent amount of money 10 million US dollars that the IDB had earmarked for any natural disaster response. They have agreed that that money can be reprogrammed and become now part of the anti-covid arsenal and that the money can be use for infrastructure and in particular, it can be use for additional hires. I am able to tell you if the ministry of health can identify the number and they ask me to provide the money to pay for that additional number, I would pay that in a heartbeat. I can guarantee that I can find that on Monday."
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