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Rabat – Following the trend of declining COVID-19 cases, Morocco became the first country to launch its vaccine passport on June 7. The passport allows less harsh health-related restrictions and freer domestic and international travel.
On May 20, the Moroccan government announced a shortening of the night curfew to span from 11:00 p.m to 4:30 a.m. By June 1, the country had reopened public spaces including movie theaters, public beaches and swimming pools, and large gatherings such as weddings.
The implementation of a vaccine passport is a groundbreaking step in the kingdom’s reopening process as it will afford fully-vaccinated individuals the right to move freely after curfew and travel both domestically and abroad with less restrictions.
Morocco announced the reopening of its borders to international flights beginning June 15.
Other Arab countries are lagging behind in the digitization of the pandemic management response.
Despite notable successes in the vaccination campaigns of countries like the UAE, which boasts a ‘fully-vaccinated’ rate of nearly 40% of its population, most Arab nations have lagged behind.
Egypt has administered 2.82 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and has fully-vaccinated only 0.4% of its population.
The situation in war-torn countries like Yemen is even more desperate as only 196,000 vaccine doses have been administered. Yemen began its vaccination campaign on April 20, 2021 and has relied on AstraZeneca donations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
Although countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have launched apps to aid in tracking virus transmissions, Morocco is the first to allow its citizens more freedoms upon achieving “fully-vaccinated” status.
Although Qatar’s EHTERAZ application uses a similar QR code format, it is currently labeled as a contact tracing tool, further adding to the significance of Morocco’s new vaccine passport.
Fully-vaccinated individuals may access the mobile vaccine passport through the www.liqahcoronona.ma web portal; the passport will also be administered in a physical format.
