COVID-19: Morocco extends night curfew, other restrictive measures for two more weeks as of March 02

Morocco has extended the night curfew and other anti-coronavirus restrictive measures for two more weeks as of Tuesday, March 2 at 9 p.m. although health authorities have been reporting in recent weeks decreasing numbers of daily new coronavirus cases with more recoveries than new cases, and lower fatality rates.

Besides the night curfew, the measures include the closure of restaurants and shopping centers at 08 p.m. and maintenance of ban on public gatherings.

The restrictive measures were first decreed on Jan. 13, 2021 for three weeks and have since then been repeatedly extended.

A government statement said that this decision is made at the recommendations of the Scientific and Technical Commission, which deemed it necessary to maintain the restrictive measures to fight the coronavirus, especially in view of the evolution of this epidemic at the global level following the appearance of new strains of the virus in some countries.

The decision is also part of continued efforts to contain the spread of the epidemic and limit its negative repercussions.

Meanwhile, the state of health emergency remains in force until March 10, 2021.

To contain the spread of the pandemic, Morocco has also launched a mass vaccination campaign on January 28, with King Mohammed VI having been the first to receive a first dose of the vaccine. So far, over 3,400,000 persons have been inoculated, which ranks Morocco in the top ten regarding the number of daily inoculations carried out across the country.

Actually, according to data released Saturday by the specialized site Our World in Data, Morocco comes sixth in the world ranking of the most advanced countries in their vaccination campaign.

With a score of 0.44 daily doses per 100 people, Morocco does better than Turkey (8th), Spain (10th), Italy (13th), Germany (14th), France (15th) or Canada (16th).

At the top of the rankings comes Israel with a score of 1.29 doses per 100 people, followed by the United Arab Emirates (0.67 dose) and the United Kingdom (0.55 dose).

Several international media have hailed Morocco’s performance, saying that the Kingdom is doing better than several European countries.

Morocco plans to inoculate 30 million people, or 80% of its population to reach herd immunity and then unlock the economy and lift all travel restrictions.

Morocco has placed orders for 66 million doses of vaccines produced by the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm. It has so far received seven million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and one million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

Other deliveries are expected in the course of the current month.