Ministry of Health: Update of Health Provisions for International Travel

The Ministry of Health updated, on Monday, the health provisions for international travel, specifying in particular the measures to be respected for countries in list A and those in list B, as well as as common measures and the list of vaccines accepted in Morocco. In a document, the ministry said that for list A countries, a certificate is required attesting that the person is fully vaccinated with one of the vaccines accepted in Morocco or has a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours (time between sampling and boarding) for people not or incompletely vaccinated. Regarding list B countries, fully vaccinated people are required to provide a certificate attesting that the person concerned is fully vaccinated with one of the vaccines accepted in Morocco and a negative PCR test of less than 48 hours (time between sampling and boarding), underlined the document. For people not or incompletely vaccinated from list B countries, it is necessary to present a negative PCR test of less than 48 hours (time between sampling and loading) and to respect a controlled quarantine of 10 days, paid by the person concerned in one of the establishments previously designated by the local authorities, with a control PCR test on the 9th day, said the same source. For Moroccan citizens or people from Morocco, from countries in list B, self-isolation at home for 5 days, with a screening test (rapid antigen or PCR) on the 5th day will be required, it added. The common measures concern, according to the same document, a passenger health card, to be downloaded online before boarding (also distributed on board the aircraft or ship), duly filled in, in particular the passenger’s address and two telephone numbers allowing to locate the person, if necessary, during the 10 days which follow his arrival on the national territory. They also concern compliance with the measures introduced in Morocco, namely wearing a mask outside, social distancing and hand hygiene, the same source said. The ministry noted, however, that children under 11 are exempt from screening PCR regardless of the country of origin, adding that a person is considered fully vaccinated after two weeks of the last required dose. Regarding vaccines accepted in Morocco, the ministry lists Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Sinopharm, Sputnik, Pfizer/BioNTech, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Covishield (Serum Institute of India), Moderna and Sinovac.