In an analysis entitled "Covid-19; a Moroccan model?", the French media underlined that the Moroccan authorities have been particularly reactive to the epidemic, notably through the decision to close schools and universities on 16 March and the establishment of containment 4 days later.
From 23 March, the kingdom has had medical equipment delivered from China while Moroccan factories manage to produce two million sanitary masks a day, added the same source, which deals with news from European countries, often on a comparative basis.
Wearing masks has become compulsory since 7 April for anyone authorized to move around and national manufacturers are supplying masks to local shops at controlled prices, at a time when a "massive testing campaign is due to begin in a few days, thanks in particular to the recent delivery of 200,000 tests from Korea," according to the French media.
"But what above all makes Morocco unique - even exemplary - in the Maghreb and throughout Africa is the extent of the support measures put in place to limit the economic and social consequences of Covid 19," noted the author of this analysis, Daniel Vigneron, co-founder and director of the publication MyEurop.
This former editor-in-chief of the French paper La Tribune, stressed in this context that by decision of HM King Mohammed VI, whose "voluntarism in this matter was unanimously underlined", a special Covid 19 fund was set up in mid-March. Supplied by donations from all public institutions in the country as well as major private companies, it has already collected, in early April, 33 billion dirhams, i.e. more than 3 billion euros, the equivalent of 3% of GDP.
These funds will be used, as is the case in most European countries, to finance the suspension of social charges weighing on companies and to grant them additional bank credit lines guaranteed by the State, explained the author of the analysis.
"But Morocco is going much further: on the one hand, the maturities of bank loans to individuals due by the end of June have been postponed in the form of longer loan terms, and on the other hand and above all, all Moroccans affiliated to the social security system will receive, until the end of June, 2,000 dirhams per month equivalent to 75% of the minimum wage, according to the analysis.