Marruecos hará vuelos especiales entre el 14 y el 31 de diciembre
The Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc has announced that it will provide repatriation flights due to the crisis being experienced by those affected by the closure of borders. "We inform our clientele that special flights will be operated between 14 and 31 December 2021," the airline commented via its official Twitter page. The journeys themselves will be operated from Morocco and will be destined to land in countries such as Belgium, Canada, Ivory Coast, Spain, France, Gabon, Italy and Senegal, in order to unblock the influx of visitors who were affected by the Kingdom's restrictions in the face of the new variant of the coronavirus.
The news contradicts the fact that a few days ago the Moroccan Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) issued an information note stating that all flights to and from the nation would be suspended from 9 December until at least 31 December. In addition, the airline itself issued a tweet before this fact stating the same. "All flights to and from Morocco will be cancelled in both directions from 9 December until 31 December at 23:59", RAM confirmed on Twitter.
According to the Alawi government and "in order to preserve Morocco's achievements in the fight against the pandemic and to protect the health of its citizens", all borders, both air and sea, have been closed since 29 November. Originally planned for two weeks, but due to the advance of the Omicron variant and its rapid spread around the world, this closure has been extended until New Year's Day.
At first, several media outlets in the country published a supposed opening of borders that would begin on 13 December, but other local media, and both the Moroccan Ministry of Health and the Moroccan State News Agency (MAP News) had to deny it in order not to provoke more crisis than the one already caused by this situation.
The border closure is having far more consequences than expected. In the first place, the most affected have been the tourists who were travelling in the Kingdom. This news has forced them to make their own way and extend their stay in the country, as well as having to change their tickets from one flight to another. "This is chaos," some of those affected by the situation tweeted. The second of those affected is the tourism sector. Several experts have already predicted that this decision by the government will have very negative consequences for the economy and it is expected to close the year with very catastrophic results, probably similar to those of 2020, in which tourism recorded a 79% drop compared to 2019. It is worth noting that these measures coincide with the pre-Christmas and Christmas seasons, key dates for the nation's tourism as many people travel to the country for holidays or return home because they live elsewhere.
Coronavirus cases are on the rise and, according to the Ministry of Health itself, the figure has now risen to 951,482 cases since the first case was recorded at the beginning of the pandemic. In the last few days, the ministry has noted that there have been few deaths and none in the last 24 hours. As of today, the country has confirmed 1,619 people infected. For its part, the government has recommended vigilance to prevent the spread of infection and encourages non-vaccinators to join the campaign.
According to MAP News, the number of vaccinated people has reached for the first time more than 24 million people who have received the vaccines, with 22 million of them vaccinated with the two doses. In turn, and taking advantage of global health recommendations to apply a third vial, almost two million people have already received this third jab.
