Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc Halts UK Flights Amid New COVID Strain Concerns

Passengers holding tickets on these flights can benefit from a free change of date and/or destination in Europe, or a refund of their ticket, the airline said in a statement. It invites its customers affected by this decision to contact the call center.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the re-confinement of London and southeast England after the discovery of a new strain of the coronavirus presented as more contagious. According to him, this new strain could be up to 70% more infectious than the other strains observed so far.

In the opinion of several British epidemiologists or infectious disease specialists, this strain will also be as sensitive to the vaccine as the older strains. "Unfortunately the new strain was out of control. We had to regain control, and the only way to do that is to restrict social contacts," said Matt Hancock, the British Health Minister on the Sky News television channel. "It will be very difficult to keep it under control until a vaccine is deployed," she added.