Morocco Tries to Contain Pandemic by Imposing Strict Measures

Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP
Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP
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Morocco Tries to Contain Pandemic by Imposing Strict Measures

Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP
Morocco imposes strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. MAP

Morocco’s Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othmani said his government is taking all responsibility for managing the coronavirus pandemic and continues to assess the spread of the COVID-19 disease on a weekly basis or more.

In press statements on Tuesday, Othmani said some new decisions have been made to deal rapidly with new infections.

The government aims at reducing the number of infections by imposing quick measures, he affirmed, noting that any delay could have heavy consequences.

“All countries in the work often resort to strict decisions when it comes to the pandemic.”

“There isn’t any country or government in the world that wishes to close its economy or limit the movement of its citizens,” the PM said.

The Health Ministry announced on Tuesday a new record number of recoveries from COVID-19 amounting to 3,426 in the past 24 hours, raising the tally to 84,158 recoveries.

It also recorded 1,376 new cases, bringing the country’s tally to 103,119 since the first case was reported on March 2.

The ministry recorded 25 new deaths, increasing the death toll to 1,855, and saying the mortality rate remains at 1.8 percent.

The new cases were distributed as follows: Casablanca (495), Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (296), Beni Mellal-Khenifra (88), Marrakech-Safi region (86), Souss-Massa (84) and Tangier-Tetouan-al Hoceima (79).

Morocco’s cumulative infection rate during the past 24 hours has become 284 infections per 100,000 people, and the infection index is 3.8 per 100,000 people.

Moroccan health authorities excluded 20,085 suspected COVID-19 cases.

A total of approximately 2,307,457 suspected COVID-19 carriers have tested negative for the virus so far.

The number of active cases currently receiving treatment is 17,106, or 47.1 cases per 100,000 people.

Morocco counts 300 patients with severe symptoms, including 41 on ventilators.

In other news, the Pasteur Institute of Morocco (IPM) announced on Monday that it will continue to perform PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests.

In accordance with the Ministry of Health's anti-coronavirus strategy, the IPM has been making these tests at the reference laboratory for emerging and dangerous viruses at the rate of some 2,000 tests per day since the pandemic’s outbreak in the Kingdom, it said in a statement.



Israeli Forces Kill 14 People in Gaza, Force New Displacement in the North

 A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Forces Kill 14 People in Gaza, Force New Displacement in the North

 A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave.

Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.

Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.

Israel's campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.

"The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction," said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.

"North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world," he told Reuters via a chat app.

Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their hometowns and villages in what is now Israel.

NO PLANS FOR SETTLERS' RETURN

The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. Hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back.

It said forces have killed hundreds of Hamas fighters in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.

On Tuesday, the United States stressed at the United Nations that "there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza" by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under US and international law.

Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, while five others were killed in two separate strikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip where the army began a limited raid two days ago.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, one man was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike, while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, medics added.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel last October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than 2 million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.