Rise in COVID-19 cases behind Morocco's decision to suspend flights with European countries

Morocco’s decision to suspend flights with Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, starting Wednesday, comes following the high rise in COVID-19 cases in these countries.

The decision also comes as a new strain of the Covid-19 Delta variant spreads in the UK, leading experts to warn that it might be even more contagious than the original Delta variant.

In this regard, Tayeb Himdi, a medical researcher on health policies told Hespress, “The AY.4.2 strain is a new Delta strain that might be appearing in the UK and could be linked to the rise in daily cases, amounting to over 50,000 cases a day.”

“Until now, there is no scientific evidence showing this link between the new strain and the high rise in cases in the UK,” he said, adding, “ this possibility remains just a theory that is not supported by any scientific evidence.”

For his part, Moulay Said Afif, member of the scientific committee on vaccination told Hespress English today, “ the decision to suspend flights to the UK, the Netherlands and Germany came after the country noticed a high increase in cases, similarily to Russia,” he said, adding, “Whenever the kingdom becomes aware of a high rise in cases in a certain country, it moves to action.”

“Recently, the UK eased restrictions, including removing the mask mandate, which caused this high increase in cases,” Afif added.

“In Morocco, the Health Ministry is working on speeding up the vaccination process of its citizens, and will keep respecting the precautionary measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 virus,” he concluded.

A few days ago, the Minister of Health Khaled Ait Taleb called for speeding up the national vaccination campaign in order to achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus as soon as possible, by progressing the immunization of the unvaccinated and broadening the availability of the third booster shot.

According to a new ministry of health circular, the new strategy for accelerating the national vaccination campaign would be implemented in late November at the latest, given the “delay” that it has known in recent weeks.