Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Health has denied the much-reported news that the government has decided to reopen the country’s air and maritime borders on December 13.
The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that media reports on recommendations by Morocco’s Scientific and Technical Committee on COVID-19 pertaining to the reopening of air and maritime travel are not true.
“No recommendation has been made in this regard” at the time of writing its statement, the ministry insisted.
The statement emphasized that Morocco’s scientific committee in charge of monitoring the country’s COVID situation meets every week and whenever necessary to assess the national epidemiological situation.
It appeared to urge citizens and residents to remain vigilant and show adherence to the COVID measures in force in Morocco, arguing that the recent appearance of the Micron variant has shown that the “resurgence” of another wave of COVID remains a possibility.
Citizens and residents can contribute to maintaining the success of Morocco’s COVID strategy by getting vaccinated and continuously being on the lookout to avoid being infected, stressed the statement.
The ministry’s statement came mere hours after many Moroccan news outlets quoted “high-profile” government sources in support of the news of the imminent lifting of Morocco’s travel ban.
On Wednesday, Moroccan news outlet Le360 was the first to report that the scientific committee monitoring Morocco’s COVID situation had recommended to the government not to extend the recently announced travel ban and instead reopen all borders on December 13.
Morocco’s government decided to suspend air and maritime travel on November 30 amid a global panic surrounding the spread of the Omicron variant in southern Africa and in some countries in Europe and Asia.
Le360 source also suggested that the lifting of the travel suspension would be gradual, noting that Morocco would still keep its borders closed to countries in southern Africa.
To date, Morocco has reported 950,946 COVID cases since the virus hit the country in March 2020. The number includes 933,658 recoveries and 14,792 deaths.
The government is also speeding up the national vaccination campaign. Over 22,746,994 people have been fully vaccinated, while the number of people who received the first and third doses of the vaccine is 24,449,866 and 1,896,565, respectively.
