Morocco Considers Air Travel Ban as UK COVID Variant Spreads in Europe

Morocco has already suspended its air links with 11 countries since the advent of the English variant known as the "Kent variant". The medical service in charge of the fight against Covid-19 is seriously considering the hypothesis of a new border closure, or at least the suspension of a large part of air links with all countries where the English variant is raging, in order to allow the ongoing vaccination campaign to run its course.

"The current health situation is improving in Morocco. We must not let the virus variants arrive en masse and break this positive momentum," says a medical source to Médias24. It is therefore imperative to preserve the gains in terms of vaccination and protect against new variants through genomic surveillance, adds the source.

The national genomic surveillance plan, implemented since April 2020, makes it possible to detect and monitor the evolution of the virus by carrying out genomic sequencing after samples taken from international travelers. It has been strengthened following the appearance of the new variants.

Morocco currently has 24 cases of the English variant, all from France. But the health situation is much more worrying in countries like France (36% of positive cases as of February 18), the United Kingdom (more than 600 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), Germany (6% to more than 22% in two weeks). These countries have already implemented restrictive measures, going as far as the total confinement of their populations, to limit the spread of the new variants.