Marruecos decide prorrogar el estado de emergencia sanitaria

The fight against the coronavirus is still ongoing in many countries such as Morocco. The fear of an upsurge in contagions is leading to measures being taken to try to curb the number of cases. Morocco has therefore decided to extend the state of health emergency. The extension of the law has been approved by the government council and will be extended throughout the country for another month. 

The Council, after a long meeting, decided to extend the rule, which will be effective from Saturday 30 April 2022 at 18:00 hours. Its end, if everything remains in order and the number of cases is decreasing, will be Tuesday 31 May at the same time. The project comes under decree no. 2.22.3311 presented by the Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit.

The news was declared to the media at a press conference after the meeting. Mustapha Baitas, Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament and government spokesman, announced the extension. Through the decision of the country's executive, the aim is to continue with the orders put in place to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of previous measures taken against the spread of the virus. For the government, the important thing is to reduce the contagion curve as much as possible and thus to reassure Moroccan citizens that everything is returning to normal. 

The news of the extension of the state of health emergency was decided before announcing whether the land borders would be opened or kept closed. The executive was to declare on 30 April what the decision would be, although due to the extension of the health rule, everything suggests that they will remain closed. 

Morocco will maintain the measures that have been in place for some time until next month. The use of face masks will continue to be compulsory and both tourists and the local population will be asked to respect the rules of social distancing. Similarly, recommendations on hand disinfection after contact with persons or objects will continue to be implemented. In addition, in the case of flights, the Kingdom maintains the regulation of presenting a PCR test done 48 hours before boarding, but it should be noted that this has been eliminated for tourists arriving by sea.

The North African nation has had a state of health emergency in place since mid-March 2020. For the past two years, the country has been immersed in the various measures implemented by the government to preserve the health of the population and thus prevent the rapid spread of EVD-CoVID-19. The programme adopted has varied over time, becoming more restrictive in times when the number of infections was in the thousands and the health system was overwhelmed.

It is worth noting the situation that arose during the pre-Christmas period with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The Alawi kingdom, fearful of the high spikes that were being recorded worldwide, decided to close all types of borders to prevent the situation from worsening, although this decision has recently been lifted and everything seems to be returning more and more to pre-pandemic normality. 

Morocco, in its latest report on the pandemic situation, confirms that there are 390 active cases in the country and 12 severe cases reported in the last 24 hours. This is a total of 40 new infections registered in one day. However, the data also states that the recovery is still higher than the number of infection, with 58 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours.

Today, more than 1,164,865 positive cases have already been recorded in the Kingdom since the first confirmed case on 2 March 2020. Mortality since then remains at 1.4% with 16,069 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. 

On the other hand, the vaccination campaign continues to bear fruit and more and more people are encouraged to receive the doses. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection specifies that, to date, 23,284,216 people have received the full course, while 24,805,614 Moroccans have only received the first dose. For their part, 6,251,283 citizens have already received the booster dose.