COVID-19: Morocco tightens health measures throughout the country from December 23
The Moroccan government has decided to tighten health emergency measures, following the recommendations of the Scientific and Technical Committee.
The committee called for strengthening the measures of the state of health emergency and to continue to adhere to preventive measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new measures to extend over three weeks and to come into force from Wednesday 23 December 2020 at 9:00 p.m. include the closing of restaurants, cafes, shops and supermarkets at 8:00 p.m.
Night travel throughout the country will be banned from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., except in special cases.
No parties, public or private gatherings will be allowed during the same period.
In Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, and Tangier restaurants will be totally closed for a period of 3 weeks.
Morocco has decreed a state of health emergency for a month on March 19 and has since then extended it nine times as part of efforts aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest extension goes on till Januray 10.
The state of health emergency enables the government to make swift, necessary decisions to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The successive extensions were decided as the situation requires keeping the appropriate measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, while ensuring that the measures taken at the level of each region, prefecture or province, are adequate with the evolution of the epidemiological situation.
The state of emergency, which is not synonymous with lockdown, is a legal framework that allows the Moroccan government to take promptly exceptional measures against COVID-19. The measures include lockdowns on neighborhoods or cities, bans on travel, the closing of gathering places, and the deployment of military troops in cities.
The tightenening of health measures comes as Morocco is still witnessing a record daily increase in COVID-19 cases.
As of December 21, the number of COVID-19 cases stood at 417,125, including 6,957
deaths.
