Urgent Update!
December 9th: Flights to and from Morocco Will Still Be Suspended until December 31
December 8th: In a press release issued on December 8, the Moroccan Ministry of Health denied that the National Scientific Committee has issued a recommendation to reopen the borders. The text, signed by the Ministry of Health, describes this information as fake news and unsubstantiated. “The scientific and technical committee has not issued any recommendation at the time of writing this press release,” the same source points out.
NB. As of 10:00 PM local time (Dec 8) the Kingdom of Morocco has not extended the date of the current closure beyond Monday, December 13.
Original Story
The Covid-19 Moroccan National Scientific and Technical Committee met on Wednesday, December 8, in Rabat and issued a positive opinion on the partial opening of the borders. Government authorities will follow the opinion of the scientific committee, according to a reliable source.
Airplane
The suspension of air and sea links to and from the Kingdom of Morocco will not be extended beyond Monday, December 13. “This decision is based on the opinion of the National Scientific and Technical Committee of Covid-19, which met on Wednesday, December 8 in Rabat,” says the source.
However, the resumption of flights and shipments will not be total as the restrictions will not be lifted for southern African countries. The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa. It should be mentioned that on November 28, Moroccan authorities announced the suspension of air and sea connections with foreign countries for 14 days to counter the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
The government justified the decision to close the borders with the need to “preserve the progress made in the fight against Covid-19.”
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The day before the meeting of the National Scientific and Technical Committee on Covid-19, a senior WHO official had said there was no evidence that Omicron caused more severe forms of Covid-19. “We have very effective vaccines that have been shown to be effective against all variants so far in terms of disease severity and hospitalization, and there is no reason to believe that this would not be the case with Omicron,” Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s chief of emergencies, told AFP in an interview.
However, it is primarily the epidemiological situation in Morocco, which the source describes as “stable and of no concern,” that would prevail in the scientific committee’s recommendation. The pandemic situation and the opinion of the scientific committee will be examined on Thursday, December 9 by the governing council, which meets under the chairmanship of Aziz Akhannouch.
The announcement of the resumption of flights and sea connections will likely be accompanied by draconian measures on access to the kingdom. Nonetheless, this is still good news for the Moroccan tourism sector which might still be able to salvage the new year’s holiday season.
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