COVID-19 - Morocco Master Thread

[Chris Scott]

Any news on whether the indirect flight loophole has worked?

[gvdaa]

"Two friends of mine, whose RAM flight was cancelled, are now booked on a flight next monday. They booked by phone through RAM in the Netherlands! We'll see what happens"

The flight was cancelled! But they could fly from Brussels, on the same day.

[Tim Cullis]

Originally Posted by Chris Scott

Any news on whether the indirect flight loophole has worked?

All those who earlier reported they had booked 'direct flights with extended flight times' have now had rather belated cancellation emails. There was an article in Hespress stating 16 Lisbon to Morocco flights were being blocked and I wonder whether some or all of these were actually going to be carrying the UK passengers.

People flying indirect (e.g. via Dublin) have so far been succcessful.

[TheWarden]

Originally Posted by Chris Scott

Any news on whether the indirect flight loophole has worked?

The 3rd country loophole is still working.

New update on travel from the UK FCO today saying your printed COVID Status needs to be dated after the 1st November. They don't clarify why

[Chri8]

We are thinking of travelling to Morocco over Christmas, but there are now two tricky questions rising (until then perhaps some more).

1. On the Onda-Site it is said, that the certificate would not be valid 6 month after the second vaccination. As the formulation is not very clear and could be linked only to the moroccan certificate from their website, I would be interested if someone has more information about that. In our country the validity of the certificate is longer than the 6 month and therefore still no 3rd vaccination necessary. Would our national certificate therefore still be valid?

2. we are thinking of flying from Italy (not our country of residence), but it seems, that Italy would not allow Third-country passengers to fly back from Morocco to Italy for touristic reasons. Any experience about that regulation. At the moment I interpret the Italian regulation, that Morocco is on list E (country not listed on List A to D) and entry for touristic reasons would not be allowed. Allthough there seems to be an exemption for EU/Schengen, I'm not sure if this applies, or would fear that it is not clear how to prove at the departure in Morocco, that Italy would not reject entry. Salute-Webpage of Italy

[TheWarden]

Originally Posted by Chri8

We are thinking of travelling to Morocco over Christmas, but there are now two tricky questions rising (until then perhaps some more).

1. On the Onda-Site it is said, that the certificate would not be valid 6 month after the second vaccination. As the formulation is not very clear and could be linked only to the moroccan certificate from their website, I would be interested if someone has more information about that. In our country the validity of the certificate is longer than the 6 month and therefore still no 3rd vaccination necessary. Would our national certificate therefore still be valid?

3rd dose and time limit of validity is only for Moroccan residents and citizens at the moment. There has been no change for tourists.

Of course this could all change as time goes on.

Can't help with the 2nd question I'm afraid.

[Tim Cullis]

For a reason that isn't fully explained on their website, the Foreign Office travel pages for Morocco are stating a need to refresh or reprint the UK Covid pass for travel to Morocco, see https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/morocco

Quote: If you downloaded your NHS COVID Pass as a PDF or added it to your Apple Wallet before 1 November 2021, you’ll need to download, reprint or add an updated version before you travel so that your NHS COVID Pass is valid.

I believe I am right in saying that if you add the Covid pass to Apple Wallet whilst you are online it continues to automatically update, it's only if you were offline when adding that it doesn't.

It all becomes clearer elsewhere as this is to do with the fact that on 1 November the UK linked with the EU digital portal meaning that now all EU (and other) countries are able to scan them whether it's for travel or entrance to domestic events. Some discussion here: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTo...ir_Travel.html

Despite loads of dosh being thrown in its general direction, the NHS system isn't currently geared up to provide a pass that takes into account a third (booster) dose. My wife had her booster seven weeks ago and it still isn't showing.

I was pinged on Monday by track and trace as having been in close contact with a zombie. The app asks various questions including 'was your last vaccination within (I think it said) 12 days'. Well I'd had a third dose booster so I said 'yes' and was told to self-isolate. If I hadn't had the booster I wouldn't have been told that. Crazy IT system... Anyway I've now done lateral flow tests for the last three days and I am clear.

[PanEuropean]

Originally Posted by Chri8

...we are thinking of flying from Italy (not our country of residence), but it seems, that Italy would not allow Third-country passengers to fly back from Morocco to Italy for touristic reasons. Any experience about that regulation. At the moment I interpret the Italian regulation, that Morocco is on list E (country not listed on List A to D) and entry for touristic reasons would not be allowed.

Hi Chris:

As usual, in Italy, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

In September this year, I took the ferry from Tunisia (also on List E) to Italy. The Italian government website was full of the very same information and warnings that you alluded to in your post above. I found an exemption that stated that persons entering Italy were exempt from quarantine (and other travel-related barriers) if they were only transiting Italy and would not be in the country for more than 36 hours.

I downloaded all the paperwork, declarations, sworn statements, etc. that the Italian government wanted me to fill out, printed out all my COVID vaccination proofs etc., and boarded the ferry, expecting that all these documents would be examined when I got off.

Not the case. One customs official looked at my Canadian passport, stamped it, and waved me onwards out of the port. Not a single question about COVID, travel plans, vaccinations, etc.

Hope this information is useful to you.

Michael

PS: During my brief time in Italy (the 3 hours it took to ride from Genoa to Switzerland), I noticed that Italy has a "wear a mask" mandate in place. But the Italians have a unique interpretation of this... most of them wear the mask on their arm, over their elbow. It's their way of saying "Yeah, I'm wearing a mask".

[Chris Scott]

But they could fly from Brussels, on the same day.

I've heard the same from Morocco that Brussels works at the moment.

9 November:
I'm told a Brit arrived in Marrakech yesterday via Spain with no problems.
The various Covid hoops for each country are as hard as it gets.

[TheWarden]

Night time curfew and permits to travel between cities and provinces to be removed from tomorrow.

Lot of rumours (again) today from the Mauritanians that the border with Morocco has reopened, however people at the border report differently. Nothing official from the Authorities yet.

1 rumour is that a rally has special permission to cross tomorrow. But its not the Africa Eco Race or any of the big money rallies, its a banger rally from Germany, and as we know Germany and Morocco aren't talking

[levelo]

I am booked on a Marrakesh-bound flight this coming Saturday. Rumour has it that French airports may be soon added to the list of those already banned. Fingers crossed.
L.

[Tim Cullis]

Today there's some very good news for Morocco and some disappointing news.

Firstly the disappointing news. Vaccination figures seem to have fallen off a cliff. Two weeks ago the combined first, second and booster doses were totalling 1.6m in a week, with a peak day of over 525,000. This last week has seen under 327,000 doses administered. Six months ago the total of second doses had reached 4.44m. Morocco has a policy of giving booster doses at the six month anniversary and only 1.55m have been administered to date, which means almost 2.9m people currently have out-of-date vaccine passes. The reason for the poor performance is not shortage of vaccines, the government has said it has stocks of almost 15m doses. It also claims vaccination progress is good, but the figures released by the Ministry of Health tell a different story.

On the very positive side, the average new case numbers have fallen yet further to 152 and are now at their lowest since ** 19 June 2020 **. Yes, not June this year, but June last year—16 months ago! For those interested in the raw statistics...

4Mar20 1st case: 1

11May20 1st peak: 175
2Jun20 1st trough: 41
----------------------------------------
17Nov20 2nd peak: 5206
2Mar21 2nd trough: 350
----------------------------------------
14Apr21 3rd peak: 569
16May21 3rd trough: 154
----------------------------------------
10Aug21 4th peak: 9774
9Nov21 current: 152

Going back to the vaccination figures, I wonder whether the positive news on the case numbers is causing the vaccine-hesitants to hold firm. The pressure from the vaccine pass is not as great as intended. Many of the unvaccinated are not travelling, don't need to visit government buildings or police stations, are not eating in restaurants, and their favourite cafes are not checking the passes.

I posed this hypothesis to someone living in El Jadida and he responded, "That is exactly it. I tried getting the third shot when the compulsory pass was announced and it was simply impossible. 100s of people in front of me and 100s more in the sports hall not wearing masks. I declined to submit myself to that. Today, I was the only person in the clinic - I chose a different place to be sure I could get Pfizer. A French friend who had been there a couple of hours earlier had three people in front of her. People have realised they don't need to show the pass. Even Carrefour has given up. Therefore, alongside the ludicrously low figures, people are falling back on luck of the draw and god being 'the best disposer of affairs'. Several locals have said the latter to me."

The relaxation of the night curfew may have some effect on the infection rates going forward but Morocco is currently in a very good place.

[Tim Cullis]

Originally Posted by levelo

Rumour has it that French airports may be soon added to the list of those already banned.

I'm not claiming insider knowledge, but other than Morocco joining the list of counties peed off with M. Macron (grin) there's no good reason for this to happen.

Case numbers in France have climbed 70% in the last 30 days but are only around 700 for the last seven days per million population. Of the 27 EU countries only five are lower, the highest is almost 10,000 (and the UK is 3,500).

[TheWarden]

There was no good reason for them banning direct flights from the UK, while allowing transit through a 3rd country, or for keeping Spanish ferries from running when you can fly between Spain and Morocco and keeping the Mauri border closed to tourists but not locals

The one thing we have learnt with Morocco's actions over the last 18months is little can be predicted accurately

[markharf]

Originally Posted by TheWarden

The one thing we have learnt with Morocco's actions over the last 18months is little can be predicted accurately

I'm not sure this should come as a huge surprise....but even if it did, I'd say the same about my country (USA), Britain, India, Japan, and scores of others.