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Rabat – Amid Morocco’s surge in COVID-19 cases, the General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR) announced today its decision to postpone family visits in certain Moroccan prisons.
The move comes as a preventive measure in light of the rising number of COVID-19 cases several Moroccan regions have recently witnessed, namely Casablanca-Settat, Marrakech-Safi, Fez-Meknes, and Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima.
In Casablanca-Settat, the move will concern the prisons of Ain Sebaa 1, Ain Sebaa 2, the Ain Sebaa reform and rehabilitation center, and Ain Borja in Casablanca. In Rabat-Sale-Kenitra, the move will apply to Sale 2, El Arjat 1, El Arjat 2, and the local prison of Kenitra. Oudaya in Marrakech will also see suspended family visits, as well as Tangier 1, Tangier 2, and Tetouan in the region of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, and Ras El Ma and Bourkaiz in Fez.
DGAPR stated in a press release today that the action falls within the measures the directorate is taking to protect inmates and staff of Moroccan prisons.
The directorate did not announce a resumption date for visits to the cited prisons.
The Ministry of Health announced yesterday that the region of Casablanca-Settat recorded 549 new COVID-19 cases, followed by 126 in Fez-Meknes, and 201 in Marrakech-Safi, 115 in Rabat-Sale-Kenitra, and 99 in Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima. All of the figures are relatively high compared to numbers from March-June.
On July 7, DGAPR announced its decision to reimpose quarantine measures in three Moroccan prisons, in Safi and Tangier, after detecting COVID-19 cases among new inmates in the two cities.
The directorate has taken several measures since COVID-19 emerged in Morocco, including the launch of mass COVID-19 screening tests in April.
The campaign included 73 correctional facilities and covered 1,736 people, including 961 inmates, 711 civil servants, and 64 employees.
The large-scale testing campaign came after the detection of a COVID-19 outbreak in the local prison of Ouarzazate, southern Morocco, in the third week of April. COVID-19 tests at the prison revealed the infection of 241 people.
DGAPR had announced on June 12 that all Moroccan prisons were COVID-19-free.
