COVID-19 - Morocco Master Thread

[Tim Cullis]

The nationwide curfew (9pm to 6am) has been extended by two weeks from 30 March, taking the restrictions into the beginning of Ramadan.

With the high demand for vaccines, nothing is certain until new supplies actually arrive, but an official of the scientific committee of the Ministry of Health says Morocco expects to receive in the coming days 1 million doses of Sputnik V, 2 million doses of Sinopharm and 1.2m doses of Astrazeneca through the Covax programme (manufactured in South Korea by SK Bioscience).

Any one of those shipments would enable Morocco to resume administering first doses which had slowed to a dribble and then officially ceased today. Second doses are continuing with a current gap of 31 days since the first dose was administered.

[TheWarden]

40 cases of the UK variant in Dakhla so they are instigating a 3 day lockdown.

To add to the madness anyone one on flights between Spain/France and Morocco today is exempt from needing PCR test

[TheWarden]

As expected SoE extended to the 10th May

[barrier911]

Thanks to everyone keeping the information up to date.
I’m booked on the Marseille to TMed ferry on the 12th of May bringing a few French bikes for a tour. It’s looking unlikely at present but where is the best place to find information of whether the ferries are actually running?

[TheWarden]

In all honesty, I'd keep watching here. 12th of May is pretty much the end of Ramadan, I don't expect much will change until June when the Moroccans working in Europe want o go home for the summer.

The ferry companies will sell you a ticket even if the ferry is unlikely to run.

The key issue is Morocco's list of banned countries, us Brits have been banned since December and no news of when that might change

[priffe]

7000 French and Spanish nationals are being evacuated from Morocco.
Covid-19: France and Spain evacuate their citizens from Morocco | The North Africa Journal
Edit: as a response to Morocco shutting down flights in view of rising numbers of positive covid tests.

[TheWarden]

Spain have been running evac ferries since last May, I think the last one was number 60, they've been running weekly for a while now.

French friends on a ferry to Marseilles tonight.

[TheWarden]

Latest list of Countries barred from entry into Morocco due to coronavirus:
- Argentina
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Cameroon
- Croatia
- Mozambique
- Italy
- Belgium
- Turkey
- Switzerland
- Germany
- The Netherlands
- Austria
- Portugal
- Sweden
- Ukraine
- The Czech Republic
- Australia
- Ireland
- New Zealand
- South Africa
- Denmark
- The United Kingdom
- Brasil
- Algeria
- Egypt
- Poland
- Norway
- Finland
- Greece
- Lebanon
- Kuwait
- Mali,
- Ghana
- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
- Guinea-Conakry
- Libya
- France
- Spain
- Tunisia
- Albania
- Hungary
- Bulgaria
- Luxembourg
- Serbia
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Cyprus
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Malta,
- Slovenia.

[badou24]

Thats a lot of countries !
Lets hope things get better later in the year for us all !

[PanEuropean]

Originally Posted by TheWarden

Latest list of Countries barred from entry into Morocco due to coronavirus...

The list makes no sense.

New Zealand is the poster child of the world for control of COVID, and they are on the list.

Infections are going out of control here in Canada, yet we are not on the list.

I don't understand the rationale of whomever in Morocco drew up that list.

[Toyark]

Originally Posted by PanEuropean

The list makes no sense.

The perils of cut 'n paste!
and why isn't it in alphabetical order?

[PanEuropean]

There is a very interesting scholarly article about citizen perceptions of the Moroccan government's response to the COVID pandemic at this link - I think it would make for interesting and educational reading for anyone planning to go to Morocco when things eventually open up:

Finding the Balance: Public Health and Social Measures in Morocco

It is notable that Moroccan citizens have had registered the most favourable public response to availability of vaccines of all the Arab / North African countries, with 88% of citizens satisfied with their government's handling of the crisis, and 91% of citizens willing to be vaccinated. In many middle east countries, citizen satisfaction with government response and citizen willingness to be vaccinated is below 50%.

[vrecha]

Originally Posted by PanEuropean

... 88% of citizens satisfied with their government's handling of the crisis, and 91% of citizens willing to be vaccinated ...

My statistic on the subject shows quite different results, I suppose this means that my way of random sampling is considerably biased ... or ...

[Tim Cullis]

Originally Posted by TheWarden

Latest list of Countries barred from entry into Morocco due to coronavirus

As far as Europe is concerned, no flights are possible to ANY of the 27 member states of the EU, plus UK, Norway, Switzerland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

If there are many more suspensions it will be easier to list destinations you CAN fly to (and which also have regular flights).

As far as Royal Air Maroc is concerned, the main destinations still operational seem to be New York, Washington, Montreal, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Moscow, Beijing and several destinations in Africa.

The real problem is not that flights aren't operating, but that flights currently operating (e.g. USA, Canada) could potentially be suspended with practically no notice, leaving visitors stranded.

[TheWarden]

All EU States are on the list I posted above