Morocco Builds Field Hospital as COVID-19 Outbreak Hits Fruit Packing Plants

The health authorities discovered these contamination outbreaks, on Friday, June 19, in red fruit packaging plants, in a rural commune located northeast of the city of Kenitra. This discovery led Rabat to tighten restrictions in the region.

More than 500 cases were recorded on Friday, particularly in these outbreaks, compared to an average of around a hundred per day. A higher daily toll since the detection of the first case of contamination in the kingdom in early March.

In a statement to the MAP, the Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit, said that the authorities had closed "all these units" and carried out screening tests for "all employees". He also said that an investigation had been opened to "establish responsibilities", specifying that the field hospital built in Kenitra welcomed, on Sunday, June 21, 2020, "nearly 700 recorded cases" in these outbreaks.

Faced with this situation, several rural communes in the region have been placed in quarantine. On the ground, an AFP photographer was able to observe that the roads were completely empty, as were the strawberry fields, deserted by the agricultural workers (mainly women) at this end-of-harvest period.

In Morocco, the state of health emergency has been extended until July 10.