Morocco’s Health Minister Under Pressure as Border Reopening Decision Looms

The reopening of the borders could be summed up as a war of position, reports Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, reporting the opinions of experts from the inter-ministerial commission for the coordination and monitoring of the system governing international travel during the Covid-19 pandemic and that of Minister Khalid Ait Taleb.

According to the newspaper, this commission should soon give a favorable opinion on the reopening of the borders after January 31. The Kingdom will have passed the peak of infections by then. Therefore, there is nothing to justify the continued closure of the borders, argue several experts, members of the monitoring committee.

Also, the Omicron variant, the main threat that motivated the closure, has become dominant in the infections recorded in Morocco, they add.

Arguments brushed aside by the Minister of Health who declared that "the current epidemiological situation in Morocco and in the world does not allow for the moment to consider the reopening of the borders, given the increase in cases infected with the Omicron variant".

Will Khalid Aït Taleb, alone against all, manage to impose his vision hostile to the reopening of the borders, much to the chagrin of the scientists?