Now, that's not what Belize's Director of Health Services said last week. Today, he said he is reconsidering that position:...

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"Because I am seeing data starting to come up of the potential benefit of wearing masks. We had said and we have been saying that mostly the recommendation is for people who are sick and even though there new suggested evidence that says it may benefit the general population if everybody use it when they are outside in the setting to prevent further transmission. I think the key take home message for us in Belize would be analyze how the mask is being use at that level, how frequently they are changing the masks and what kind of environments they are using it, because for the Belize context it may not necessarily be the best situation, particularly when I see people wearing a mask for 8-9 hours - the same mask. It was blue and by the end of the day it was brown. I don't know that there is a potential benefit in there. We are reviewing the data. We are not still making a blanket recommendation in that regard and if that were the case we would then have to start finding a mechanism for educating our population in how to wear a mask properly."