Rabat – Morocco announced its decision to suspend travel from and to four countries, including Australia, Brazil, Ireland, and New Zealand, starting Tuesday, January 19.
Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said that authorities decided to implement the travel restrictions as part of the preventive measures to limit the spread of the new mutation of the COVID-19 virus.
The ministry announced that several countries have detected cases of the new strain, including South Africa and the UK, prompting a response from Morocco’s health authorities.
Morocco announced its decision to suspend travel with the four countries after the Ministry of Health recorded the first domestic case of the new COVID-19 strain.
The ministry said that authorities detected the mutated version of the virus at the Tangier Med Port. The carrier of the new COVID-19 strain is a Moroccan citizen who had visited Ireland.
The carrier, who did not show any COVID-19 symptoms, is currently under quarantine in Casablanca.
People who were in contact with the patient are also undergoing quarantine.
In December, Denmark’s foreign ministry announced that Morocco introduced an entry ban for travelers from the European country.
Read Also: Morocco Records 1st Case of New COVID-19 Strain
The new strain of COVID-19 emerged in the UK in December 2020. Health authorities found that the new variant is 70% more transmissible than the other strains of the pandemic.
However, experts do not think the highly contagious new strain is more deadly than the original COVID-19 strain and vaccination campaigns should still be effective.
Following the emergence of the new strain of COVID-19, concerns mounted questioning whether developed vaccines can work against the pandemic.
Scientists assured that the new strain is “very unlikely” to be resistant to COVID-19 vaccinnes.
Morocco’s government vowed to launch a nation-wide COVID-19 vaccination campaign in December, but no official announcement on the process has been released yet.
The North African country ordered 65 million doses of the vaccines and is expecting delivery of the first batches in the coming days. The country will use AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines.
To date, Morocco has confirmed 460,144 COVID-19 cases, including 435,686 recoveries, and 7,977 deaths.
