Breaking: All Direct Flights To Morocco Suspended For Two Weeks

Rabat – Moroccan authorities have announced that they are suspending all direct flights to the kingdom for two weeks, starting on Monday the 29th of November, citing fears of the Omicron variant.

“Because of the rapid propagation of the new Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of COVID-19, notably in Europe and Africa, and in the interest of preserving the accomplishments of Morocco in its fight against the virus, all direct passenger flights to the Kingdom of Morocco will be suspended for 2 weeks, starting Monday the 29th November 2021 at 23h59,” says a communiqué by the Interministerial Committee.

The decision comes in the midst of the rapid spread of a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, named the Omicron variant, which threatens to undo a lot of the progress countries like Morocco have made in the fight against the pandemic.

Before this announcement, Morocco had suspended air travel to and from France. The kingdom also halted maritime travel with the European country earlier today.

Amid mounting concerns over the new variant, Royal Air Maroc had updated its list of countries with COVID-19 entry restrictions to include South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

All passengers coming from those countries or transiting through them will be denied entry to Morocco.

Experts in Morocco and in other countries have sounded the alarm over the new variant, saying that it could weaken the effectiveness of the vaccination campaigns that have been conducted worldwide.

According to experts, the new variant could end up causing a new wave of infections worldwide with its potentially high infection rate and improved resistance to vaccines.

A total of 116 new cases of infection with the new coronavirus (Covid-19) and 171 recoveries were recorded in Morocco over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection said Saturday.

In its daily bulletin on the epidemic situation, the Ministry noted that a total of 24,409,859 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and the number of fully vaccinated people (1st and 2nd doses) has reached 22,631,370, adding that 1,641,169 people have received the third dose of the vaccine.

The total number of COVID-19 cases reported since the start of the outbreak of the virus stands at 949,648, while recoveries rise to 931,883, i.e. a recovery rate of 98.1%.

The new COVID-19 cases were reported in the regions of Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (51), Casablanca-Settat (49), Marrakech-Safi (6), Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (4), Souss-Massa (3), Eastern region (2) and Fez-Meknes (1).

As for coronavirus-related fatalities, they rose to 14,774 (fatality rate of 1.6%) with a new case reported in the Casablanca-Settat region.

The number of active cases stands at 2,991, including 103 people in a critical or severe condition, the ministry said.