The Scientific and Technical Committee for the fight against Covid-19 recommended the reopening of borders “ as soon as possible“, given the scale of the economic, social and health consequences resulting from the closure decision taken by the government.
The anti-covid scientific committee justified this recommendation by “ the stabilization of the epidemiological situation in Morocco, despite the peak which will last until mid-February“. The same goes for the Scientific Committee for Anti-Covid Vaccination which has called on the government to open the borders as soon as possible.
As previously stated by Pr. Moulay Mustapha Ennaji, virologist and director of the virology laboratory at Hassan II University in Casablanca, the scientists have issued their recommendation, but the decision remains a little more Politics“.
In this context, Sid Afif, member of the scientific committee on vaccination, stated that “ the dominant variant today in the Kingdom is Omicron with 95% of cases. Therefore, the borders should be reopened as soon as possible in order to accelerate the recovery of the national economy affected by the pandemic.“.
Of course, the opening of the borders of which the specialist speaks is not unconditional. Afif recommends opening the borders, but imposing a PCR test less than 48 hours before the time of the flight, in addition to vaccination with 3 doses of the anti-covid vaccine. According to him, Morocco has been able to keep the epidemiological situation under control precisely thanks to strict measures.
” Reconciling the equation of health, economy and society is very difficult. But it is necessary to take into account new developments when making a decision. The tourism sector, for example, is experiencing a suffocating crisis (…) not to mention the quarantine which has caused psychological consequences for citizens “, explained the specialist.
According to another member of the Scientific and Technical Committee for the fight against Covid-19, Said Moutawakil, “In Morocco, the societal and political debate on the opening of borders still exists between all official and unofficial parties. But epidemiological indicators must be mentioned during the discussion“, he says.
Indeed, Said Moutawakil pointed out in a statement to MoroccoLatestNews than ” the epidemiological situation is stable, knowing that we have reached the peak. But in large cities, pressure still persists on intensive care units with 120 critical cases arriving in hospitals every day.in addition to the risk increase in deaths linked to Covid-19, which will reach 40 deaths per day in the coming days “.
Not being very pessimistic, this member of the scientific committee nevertheless underlined that ” the end of the pandemic is expected in the spring, since we will naturally coexist with the disease“.
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