COVID-19 Outbreak Hits Casablanca Shoe Factories, Over 150 Workers Infected

These are three shoe manufacturing plants for export (Pretty Shoes, Cochazur, Shoes Diffusion) belonging to the Mahlou family. According to Le360, out of a total of about 1,000 employees, more than 150 positive cases have been recorded from samples taken on half of the workforce.

This new outbreak of contamination undoes the efforts of the government which "is multiplying actions to encourage companies to resume their activities as soon as possible". During his visit a few days ago before the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Moulay Hafid Elalamy, hinted that "the control carried out by a joint commission, composed of members of the Ministry of Health, the Interior, Labor and Industry, has been strengthened to ensure compliance with the new preventive standards required by the health authorities".

Has this commission been in the shoe factories of Sidi Bernoussi? Apparently not. Because according to Le360, "these three industrial units are running at full capacity, with three shifts 24/7, in violation of the required distancing rules". Even worse, the same source reports "that after distributing protective masks during the first few days, employees were asked to fend for themselves to obtain them". As a result, a large number of them were working without a mask.

This new outbreak of contamination could jeopardize all deconfinement scenarios and deal a serious blow to the collective effort to curb the spread of the virus. It also casts serious doubts on "the government’s ability to ensure a return to normal, without too much damage, especially human".