Rabat – Morocco’s airport authorities announced on Friday, April 23, that the country will suspend all flights to and from India starting on Saturday, April 24. Along with the halted flights, Morocco will no longer allow citizens of India, traveling directly or via another country, to enter her borders.
The announcement, published late on Friday, essentially means travel between Morocco and India has halted effective immediately.
Morocco’s National Airport Authority did not indicate its reasons for the suspension but the announcement falls in line with dozens of other travel bans implemented in response to the continued growth of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
India was originally one of the key suppliers of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Morocco.
Supply agreements came to a standstill, however, as India is currently facing a disastrous new wave of COVID-19 infections, reporting another 332,730 new cases over the past 24 hours. India had already recorded over 16 million infections and 3 million related deaths, yet a sudden increase in cases has global health experts concerned.
Read also: India Detects New “Double Mutant” COVID-19 Variation As Cases Rise
India’s number of new daily COVID-19 cases had for months been falling steadily from its August 24, 2020 peak of nearly 100,000 new cases a day.
A new wave of infections has since eclipsed that peak, with new daily cases skyrocketing from a single-day 12,881 on February 17 to ever dizzying heights, surpassing the 100,000 mark in early April. In the month of April alone, India’s daily recorded cases have tripled to surpass 300,000 on April 21, with no end in sight.
India’s horrific explosion of new cases is likely being driven by the emergence of new mutations on the South-Asian subcontinent.
At first these appeared to be the British, Brazilian, and South African variants that have spread across the world in recent months. Now local public health experts worry that a new “double mutant” variation is leading the new upsurge in cases.
