Marruecos confina a Tánger por los rebrotes de coronavirus
The Moroccan Ministry of Interior announced on Monday that it is isolating the city of Tangier, which has one million inhabitants, as of noon today, following the appearance of several COVID-19 outbreaks in the city. The ministry had already announced last night the return of "several neighborhoods" of Tangier to the confinement, but this morning issued a statement in which it extends the measure to the entire city, which becomes the largest city that is isolated in the country.
The measure includes the suspension of public transport (road and rail) to and from the city of Tangier, and all travel within the city is subject to "an exceptional authorization" given by the local authorities. Images from the city show public trucks transporting large concrete blocks which were then placed on some of the city's main avenues to prevent road traffic.
The Tangier region currently accounts for almost 20% of the coronavirus cases in Morocco, surpassed only by Casablanca (the most populated region in the country), and the outbreak of the last few days does not appear in the official figures, which show only 61 new cases between Saturday and Sunday. It is not the first city to be isolated by outbreaks of coronavirus, as it has already happened in Safi - city of about 300,000 inhabitants in the south of the country - but Tangier's importance is greater because of its population and because it is the main gateway to the country from the north.
The communiqué does not specify what is happening with the port of Tangier Med, which is about 50 kilometres from the city and will be receiving passenger ships from Sète (France) and Genoa (Italy) from the 15th. However, two departures from Tanger Med to Algeciras, Spain, are scheduled for this week, but only in the direction and limited to Spanish or residents in this country.
The Moroccan government had begun to implement several measures to reduce the number of cases of coronavirus, which to date has 15,821 accumulated cases, of which 253 have died and 12,676 have been cured.