These new measures were taken ahead of a long bank holiday weekend. The beaches concerned were particularly crowded. Those in the Moroccan capital and in Salé, a neighboring town, were already closed.
In addition, two districts of Casablanca, the economic capital of the country, have been cordoned off since Monday. Some shops, local markets and cafes are closed.
The kingdom has known since the end of July a worrying increase in Covid-19 infections, with more than 1,000 new cases recorded every day. The latest report from the Ministry of Health reports 43,558 cases of contamination, including 681 deaths.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of this “upward trend” in cases in Morocco since the lifting, in June, of a very strict three-month lockdown.
Neighborhoods in large Moroccan cities such as Marrakech, Tangier, Fes or Rabat have already been reconfigured. Movement is strictly controlled there and the police patrol to encourage the population to wear masks and to respect physical distancing measures.
Much criticized in the media and on social networks for his management of the health crisis, the Moroccan Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb announced Monday that the country would participate in clinical trials to “obtain vaccines in sufficient quantity (.. .) and ensure the transfer of knowledge in order to guarantee self-sufficiency “of production.
He gave no details on these clinical trials, nor on the type of vaccine, nor on the laboratories or the partner country.
In this country of 35 million inhabitants, the economic crisis linked to the pandemic and the drought is hitting the most precarious Moroccans hard and could push more than a million of them into poverty, according to a recent note from the Haut – Planning commission in charge of official statistics.
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