The measures taken by Morocco, vis-à-vis travelers in China, are precautions dictated by the evolution of the pandemic in this country and the information related to it, said, Monday in Rabat, doctor and researcher in health policies and systems, Tayeb Hamdi.
“The measures taken around the world, including Morocco, vis-à-vis travelers in China, do not reflect a concern, or negative forecasts about the evolution of the pandemic of COVID 19,” Hamdi stressed in a statement to MAP.
China, a country of one and a half billion people, is experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of the epidemic since the sudden lifting of the severe restrictions previously applied under the “Zero COVID” policy, recalled Dr. Hamdi, explaining that this decision comes at a time when the country is experiencing a spread of “hyper contagious” variants, including mainly BF.7, which is already circulating in many other countries.
This measure should also accelerate the resumption of overseas travel of Chinese people after the lifting of restrictive measures, he added.
“The rapid and large-scale spread of a virus usually facilitates the emergence of mutations and variants, but the world, which is certain of this eventuality, fears instead that one of these variants will be more virulent than those currently circulating on the planet,” the researcher underlined.
On Friday, December 30, WHO urged China to share real-time data on the evolution of the epidemic, including sequencing, hospitalization and death data, which are essential tools for timely detection of the emergence of new variants and the degree of their virulence.
In the absence of these data in real time, Tayeb Hamdi added, States have decided to take measures regarding travel from and to China to, on the one hand, restrict the risk of propagation of a possible more virulent variant without the knowledge of the world health authorities, and on the other hand, to follow the genomic evolution of the epidemic through systematic or random PCR sampling of travelers from China.
He said that Morocco, in accordance with its preventive and anticipatory policy, has decided to prohibit as a precautionary measure the access to its territory to all travelers, whatever their nationality, from China, explaining that this decision was taken after the confirmation by the WHO of the inadequacy of the data shared by China about the evolution of the epidemic after the end of the “Zero COVID” policy.
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