Morocco bans New Year’s celebrations, institutes curfew

Morocco banned New Year’s celebrations on Monday, December 20, as part of restrictions aimed at combating the spread of Covid-19. The government has announced a series of measures that will be applied on the night of December 31 to January 1, including the ban on all New Year’s celebrations, the ban on organizing parties in hotels, restaurants and tourist establishments. , the closure of restaurants and cafes at 11:30 p.m. and the establishment of a night-time curfew between midnight and 6 a.m.

Morocco announced on December 15 that it had detected a first case of infection with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the country, which will close from Thursday December 23 its partially reopened borders in the face of the spread. “dazzling” of the new variant. The government will however authorize special repatriation flights to foreign countries, especially to Europe. The Moroccan government decided on December 4 to ban all festivals and major cultural and artistic events due to the spread of the new variant. Morocco has recorded nearly 15,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The number of daily cases of contamination has been increasing since November 21 in Morocco. The increase is attributed to two main factors: non-compliance with barrier measures and non-adherence to the vaccination campaign, especially for the administration of the third dose, according to specialists interviewed by the information site Medias24.

Over 9.2 million cases of # COVID19 have been recorded on the African continent – with a total of over 8.4 million healings & 225,000 deaths.

Consult the data by country on the WHO dashboard for the African Region: https://t.co/OLDIVVIePA pic.twitter.com/hhJbSb04dZ

– WHO Africa (@OMS_Afrique) December 20, 2021

Tourism professionals are alarmed by the devastating impact of the closing of the borders on this vital sector for the kingdom’s economy, already undermined by an unprecedented crisis for almost two years. To compensate for the absence of foreign tourists, the kingdom is banking on local tourism. The Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) has set up an ambitious program to promote the Moroccan product, collaborating with the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the establishment of holiday vouchers which will reduce travel costs. and promote domestic tourism, reports the MAP agency. According to the National Federation of the Hotel Industry (FNIH), the social impact is also devastating: between 20% and 30% of jobs in the sector have already been destroyed. Tourism weighs nearly 7% of the GDP.