COVID-19: Morocco extends state of health emergency until February 10, 2021

The Moroccan government Council, held in Rabat this Thursday Jan.07, has decided to extend the state of health emergency, that was scheduled to expire on Sunday Jan. 10, until February 10, 2021.

The Council adopted the draft decree extending the state of health emergency throughout the national territory from Sunday, Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. to Wednesday, February 10 at 6 p.m.

The state of health emergency enables the government to make swift, necessary decisions to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The extension was decided as the current 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.

This is the tenth time that Morocco is extending the state of health emergency since the measure was first adopted on March 19.

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 extension comes as Morocco is still recording daily COVID-19 cases.

On January 06, the number of COVID-19 cases stood at 447,081, including 7,618 fatalities.

The health emergency extension comes as Morocco is poised to launch a large-scale vaccination campaign after it secured COVID-19 vaccines from international companies, including from China’s Sinopharm and UK’s AstraZeneca.

Moroccan health minister Khaled Ait Taleb had said that Morocco ordered 65 million vaccine doses, 40 million from Sinopharm and 25 million from the UK’s AstraZeneca, and has already received the first batch of Sinopharm vaccine.

Morocco plans to vaccinate 25 million people for free as instructed by King Mohammed VI.