Marruecos bate en las últimas 24 horas el récord de contagios y de muertos por COVID-19

In the last 24 hours, Morocco broke its record for daily infections of COVID-19, with 3,763 new cases and deaths recorded in one day from the disease (60 deaths), according to figures provided by the Ministry of Health.

The figures for this past day show that the Maghreb country has accumulated 170,911 confirmed cases of infection and 2,878 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The numbers of infections and deaths were very low in the first few months thanks to strict measures of home confinement and restrictions of all kinds, but since August they have shot up as controls have been relaxed, worsening in September and October.

The country is still technically under a "state of health emergency", which is being renewed every month, allowing the authorities to impose closures - of cities, neighbourhoods, schools or businesses - and to restrict shopping and leisure hours.

This also entails the closure of land, air and sea borders, with the sole exception of "special flights" authorised for passengers with confirmed hotel reservations or with an invitation from a company, who must present a PCR test to rule out the virus when boarding the plane.

These conditional derogations do not succeed in attracting tourism, which is a major source of foreign exchange, a generator of jobs and on which sectors such as the craft industry, transport and catering largely depend.

The recession in Morocco is going to be the worst in 50 years, with a drop in GDP that the International Monetary Fund has estimated at seven percentage points in its recent world report, a figure that falls short of the Moroccan government's forecasts (-5.8%).