Marruecos reduce aún más sus conexiones aéreas 

Within hours of announcing the suspension of its air links with Turkey and Switzerland, Morocco has just added three new European countries to the list, according to an official source quoted by the360. They are Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. As of midnight tonight, flights to and from these five countries will no longer be authorised for a provisional period of 15 days. 

Following the announcement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the suspension of flights with five mostly European states from midnight on 22 February to limit the spread of the new strains of COVID-19. Travellers from Australia, Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, Turkey, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand will not be allowed to enter the country. Flights from the UK, where one of the variants was detected, have been suspended since the end of December.  

According to the information available, the decision to suspend flights will be reviewed in 15 days. Despite a number of proactive measures, Morocco has so far detected at least 24 cases of the British strain. Some of the new variants of COVID-19 have much higher transmission rates, although the case fatality rate remains largely unchanged. 

The measure mainly affects Royal Air Maroc, RyanAir and Air Arabia, and many cities are affected, as air links with Morocco have multiplied in recent years. 

It should be noted that, officially, the Moroccan borders have been "technically" closed since the beginning of the pandemic. The various flights linking the Kingdom with other countries since that date have been subject to exceptional authorisations. The authorities suspend these authorisations on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation. 

The curfew has been in place in Morocco since 23 December. Initially, the government set a maximum duration of three weeks, however, the incidence remains in place. 

The Moroccan Ministry of Health has appealed to all citizens to redouble their vigilance in the face of the appearance of the new variant of COVID-19, especially as the Kingdom is in the midst of a vaccination operation against the epidemic. 

The Ministry has also insisted on the obligation to continue to strictly comply with the preventive measures, using the protective mask correctly, keeping a physical distance of more than one metre and washing hands regularly with soap and water or hydroalcoholic gel. The general public is invited to avoid all gatherings and the elderly or chronically ill to take special care. 

The authorities announced last December that 66 million doses of the UK's Oxford-AstraZeneca and China's Sinopharm vaccines had been ordered. The government also announced the launch of a free vaccination campaign targeting 25 million people, approximately 80 per cent of the population. 

Morocco has also reported that a total of 615,181 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far. The country thus surpasses the threshold of half a million immunised and is the leader in vaccination in Africa.    

Morocco also ranks twelfth on the Oxford University list of new vaccinations. The Kingdom outstrips, among others, countries such as Spain and Saudi Arabia. In the last 24 hours, Moroccan health authorities have inoculated more than 65,000 people with the vaccine.  

These figures are the result of the first mass vaccination campaign led by King Mohamed VI. The second phase of the process is expected to begin in the coming weeks. Moroccan experts plan to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population in three months and thus achieve mass immunity before the month of Ramadan.  

However, Morocco has also recorded 536 new infections and 16 deaths in the last 24 hours. The Ministry of Health included in the figures the recovery of 1,035 patients, who join the 456,000 cured since the pandemic began. The recovery rate has reached 95.7%.  

The government has set up a total of 2,880 fixed points in hospitals, universities, sports venues and workplaces, as well as 7,000 mobile centres to carry out the vaccination campaign. However, each centre has only one type of vaccine.