Authorities across the country strengthened the monitoring of health measures as the country braces to respond to another wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that will likely be driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Measures include stricter control of health passes in malls and commercial centers and mandating mask-wearing in public spaces, in a bid to keep up with low levels of infections in the country.
Shop owners in Rabat told Hespress they could face closing of their businesses if they violate precautionary measures.
Despite stricter measures, health experts say relapse is very likely.
“These sudden measures come in interaction with the nature of the virus, which also surprises the health authorities,” Said Moutawakil, member of the Scientific Committee for Vaccination, told Hespress.
The country had already barred travelers from overseas and banned cultural demonstrations in a bid to delay the winter wave of Covid-19 that’s already ravaging Europe.
Further measures are likely to be imposed in the upcoming weeks, sources told Hespress, including a remote examination system for students.
The one case of Omicron variant located in Morocco so far has mutated domestically, which may indicate that there are other cases in Casablanca and other regions.
The World Health Organization said that Omicron spreads at “at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant.”
The Delta variant, which previously accounted for 99.8% of the world’s cases, dropped to 99.2% according to the latest tally by the GISAID database in collaboration with the WHO.
Omicron accounted for 0.4% of the total of cases detected through GISAID in the past 60 days, a rise from last week’s 0.1%, according to the WHO’s report.
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