The Government Council examined and adopted draft decree No. 2.20.960, presented by the Minister of the Interior, extending the period of validity of the state of health emergency throughout the national territory to deal with the spread of Covid-19, indicated the Minister of National Education, Professional Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, government spokesperson, Saaid Amzazi, in a press release read during a press briefing following the Council. In order to guarantee the effectiveness and efficiency of the measures taken in the fight against the spread of the pandemic linked to Covid-19, this draft decree extends the state of health emergency throughout the national territory from Sunday January 10, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. to Wednesday February 10, 2021 at 6:00 p.m., said Saaid Amzazi. He noted that, given the need to ensure that the provisions and measures taken are adequate with the evolution of the epidemiological situation in the different regions and provinces of the Kingdom, the draft decree provides provisions allowing the government authority responsible for the Interior to take, in light of the epidemiological situation, all appropriate measures at the national level. It also allows the walis of the regions and the governors of the prefectures and provinces to take all executive measures to maintain public health order at the level of a prefecture, a province, a commune or more.
The activities of the National Security have, it is recalled, increased by 33% in 2020 compared to 2019 « mainly due to infringements of the state of health emergency measures », according to an official annual report. This report shows “968,967 violations of exceptional measures” of which “196,972 led to a judicial investigation”. Several cities in the country, including the tourist capital Marrakech, are subject to traffic restrictions. A nighttime curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. was also imposed across the country from December 23 to January 13, with a ban on parties and gatherings, closing of restaurants and businesses at 8:00 p.m., except in Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier where restaurants are completely closed.
Morocco, a country of 35 million inhabitants, has thousands of cases of contamination and deaths and some 2,000 new cases of Covid-19 are recorded there daily. The Kingdom plans to launch a vaccination campaign to immunize some 25 million adults, starting with so-called “frontline” personnel (health, security, education). The launch date of the campaign is not known. A temporary emergency authorization of 12 months was issued on Wednesday by the competent authorities to the vaccine developed by the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. “Morocco has still not received the doses of the vaccine” but is currently “in the final stretch to acquire them,” Moroccan Minister of Health Khalid Aït Taleb said on television on Wednesday. The authorities announced ten days ago that they had ordered 65 million doses of the British AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines. An agreement was also made with Russia for the delivery of eight million doses of the Sputnik vaccine.
