COVID-19 - Morocco Master Thread

[vrecha]

As TheWarden said.
Entered Morocco mid November, intending to stay until March or April, will see.
Can't comment on touristic infrastructure as we are self-sufficient in this regard. As usual, we just skipped through Morroco and are now (again :-) ) exploring the inland of Western Sahara. When we were still on the roads in the North, we were just waved through in most checkpoints, no real control. We have always "a hotel reservation" with us, just a printed forum from booking.com. We keep booking and canceling hotels in our general direction, but as said, so far nobody required to produce this (ok, except when entering, on the border).


Otherwise, everything is very relaxed.


Hope it helps.

[levelo]

Thanks TheWarden and Vrecha, it does help.

Provided I can fly ( another strict lockdown here in France could prevent me from getting to the nearest airport :-( ) it seems doable then.

I am shooting for February + March.

[TheWarden]

I'lll be very jealous if you make it!.

Morocco's just extended the SoE for another month to the 10th of Feb but no real change execpt they are tightening up on the issuing of Exception Travel Permits for the regions under tighter restrictions

[levelo]

Hey TheWarden,

What do you mean by ' the issuing of exception travel permits ' in ' regions under tighter restrictions ' ?
I was under the impression that tourists could travel nationwide without restrictions at all save for the compulsory hotel booking to get into the country.
The only restrictions I am aware of being cafés and restaurants being closed in major cities.

L.

[TheWarden]

Casablanca is under tighter restrictions with some other cities. Officially you need a permit for travel in them. Foreigners seem to get away with just a hotel booking and a smile though. A news article today suggested that they are clamping down on how these permits are being issued and used. I suspect it will effect the moroccans more than the small number of tourists.

Even when I was there just after the lockdown a lot of the checkpoints just waved me through and you needed to a permit then to travel anywhere officially

[levelo]

Agadir for instance is still supposed to be under ' strict ' lockdown, like other main cities in the country.
Can one ( foreign tourist or Moroccan citizen ) go out ? Travel to other cities ?
All I know is that restaurants, cafés and beaches are closed.

[Tim Cullis]

After many false dawns, Morocco's vaccination campaign looks like it will be starting next week. A posting from the Royal Armed Forces website announces,

"Royal Airlines's 787 Dreamliner Aircraft will be heading on a special flight from Mohamed V airport to Mumbai International Airport today, targeting the flight according to sources of the Var-Maroc Forum, bringing the first doses of Covid vaccine.

AT3884: CMN Thursday going at 15:25. Access BOM on capacity Friday 00:30 (local time, already landed)

AT3085: BOM going at Friday 02:30. Arriving CMN Friday at 13:40"

I've checked Flightradar24 but can't see the plane under either AT3085 or RAM3085. Another source quoted AT3883. But fingers crossed nevertheless.

UPDATED UPDATE: Multiple sources state the plane is kitted out with refrigerated containers and is carrying two million doses. The return flight passed over Cairo at about 0830 GMT Friday morning, you can track its progress at https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f...t3085#26a26d01

[Tim Cullis]

The authorities have now approved the SinoPharm vaccine for deployment in Morocco and the first delivery is expected Wednesday 27 Jan.

[TheWarden]

SoE extended until the 10th March 2021, bringing upto pretty much 12 months since flights were stopped, ports and borders closed.

No further news on the ban on entry for UK citizens and other red list countries. Rumour is this will be reviewed soon

[impala_dk]

GNV ferry from Genova to Tangier is suspended until at least on February the 25th.

[TheWarden]

Along with the Sete and Marseille ferries.

Only ferry option now is the once a week ferry from Morocco to Spain organised by the spanish embassy

[Tim Cullis]

An update on the vaccination progress.....

HM King Mohamed VI inaugurated Morocco's vaccination campaign on Thursday 28 January by receiving the first non-clinical trial vaccination in Morocco and chose to take the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. The first phase of the campaign will cover people on the frontline in the COVID-19 fight, including doctors, security services, teachers, those in the high-risk categories and citizens over 75 years of age.

Morocco plans to vaccinate 30 million people—80% of the Moroccan population—and has ordered 66 million doses of vaccine. To date it has received two million Astrazeneca doses from Serum in India, and half a million Sinopharm doses from China. A further 4.5 million Astrazeneca doses are expected to arrive 13 February, with another 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine on 16 February. Further supplies are expected in February, March and April. Other doses are expected from Covax (which the UK donated £758 million to) but these are expected later. Morocco is currently following a two-shot short-gap procedure with 21 days between Sinopharm doses and 28 days between Astrazeneca doses.

Progress to date has shown 90,000 vaccinations carried out by 29 Jan, 257,000 by 1 Feb, 352,000 by 3 Feb and 464,000 by 5 Feb. On a per-capita basis this is almost twice the rate achieved by the UK in the first four weeks of its campaign.

The UN Mission in Western Sahara has reported that Morocco is making 20,000 doses available to the Sahrawis detained in the Tindouf camps in Algeria. The delivery of the vaccine will be overseen by MINURSO, the UN agency.

[Tim Cullis]

The second shipments of vaccines arrived on schedule and the campaign has stepped up a gear with more than 2.35m first dose vaccinations given in the last three weeks. This represents 6% of the population which on par or above that which France and Spain have achieved in nearly 7 weeks, see graph below.



The campaign started giving second doses last Friday with 13,476 on the first day.

5 million additional AZ doses are expected in March, then another 20 million in April. Morocco is also negotiating with Sinopharm for a larger delivery in its April shipment to further increase the rate of vaccination. Discussions are additionally happening regarding approval of the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine.

In the meantime, the pandemic statistics within Morocco continue to drop. Rolling 7-day average new cases reached a peak in mid November of 5,206 per day and have dropped now to 402. Deaths peaked late November at 80 per day and have now fallen to 13.

To put the latest figures into perspective, the UK with approximately 80% higher population than Morocco is running at 10,406 daily cases and 494 deaths. Adjusted for population size the current UK death rate is over 20 times that of Morocco.

(It might be argued that Morocco with less than 6 million tests carried out to date isn't detecting all the cases.)

[TheWarden]

More relevant to travel, theres a possibility the France and Italy ferry routes will resume early March.

https://www.bladi.net/traversees-mar...QQyC-TkZPX1Z1o

As yet no news on the ban on UK passport holders being lifted

[badou24]

Originally Posted by TheWarden

More relevant to travel, theres a possibility the France and Italy ferry routes will resume early March.

As yet no news on the ban on UK passport holders being lifted

Thats good news , looks like things are going in the right direction .
Bet they open the borders in the summer , when its too hot !!