Morocco: More than 1.5 million people arrested for Covid breaches

Moroccan police have arrested more than 1.5 million people for violating Covid-19 preventative measures between July last year to 22 April this year, according to the country’s Deputy Interior Minister Noureddine Boutayeb.

Boutayeb revealed that the figures meant security services arrested more than 5,700 Covid-19 violators daily during a nine-month period.

"Although this number seems large, it indicates a great involvement of all the authorities in charge of law enforcement" in the country's program to combat the coronavirus pandemic and protect citizens, Boutayeb said.

He later affirmed that about 280,000 of the total number of arrestees will appear before courts. The figure represents only 18% of the total number of detainees.

The Moroccan government came under harsh criticism especially from the opposition members of the parliament over its Covid measures including lockdown and curfew during Ramadan.

The Interior Ministry defended the government’s strict measure citing its legality in issuing the restrictions to prevent a surge in virus cases.

It further said the state of emergency that Morocco introduced in March 2020 remarkably contributed to controlling the spread of COVID-19.

Morocco has so far confirmed 509,465 COVID-19 cases, including 495, 408 recoveries and 8,999 deaths.