Morocco closes schools, takes action to avert Covid-19 outbreak

Morocco will suspended starting from Monday all classes from the pre-school level to higher education as well as vocational training institutions, the education ministry said.

Schools have to apply distance learning as the suspension of classes is not to be understood as an exceptional holiday but rather a precautionary measure to avert the spread of Covid 19, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Universities and high schools will be encouraged to use digital tools, said Saïd Amzazi, adding that the national television will cooperate to offer classes to rural students.

Cancelling classes aims at avoiding clusters especially among children to help avert any outbreak, health minister Ait Taleb told Al Oula TV channel.

We haven’t reached a pandemic locally yet as all the cases confirmed so far are isolated and infected abroad, he said.

So far, confirmed coronavirus cases in Morocco are limited at 8. All of them have contracted the disease abroad.

Meanwhile, Morocco’s first case, a 39 year-old infected in Italy, has recovered and the other 4 cases are improving while a Senegalese woman is in critical condition. Morocco declared a first coronavirus death in an 89 year-old woman with underlying health conditions.

Morocco’s largest port suspended all passenger ship traffic as a precautionary measure.

All sea and air passenger trips with Spain, Italy, Algeria and France and China has been suspended indefinitely.

Today’s Friday sermon focused on protective measures against the virus outbreak and asked citizens to avoid panicking.

Moroccan administrations took protective measures and asked their staff to avoid shaking hands, unnecessary travel and mass gatherings.

Earlier last week, Morocco banned fans from attending football matches and cancelled events involving more than 1000 participants as well as religious festivals.