While the Moroccan health authorities daily reporting of infections across the country, they have caused some confusion by reporting on regions rather than individual cities. The figures for Fes/Meknes are third highest in the country after Casablanca and Marrakech, yet digging down into the numbers reveals that Fez has a much lower number than Meknes.
The answer lies in the fact that fifteen people who visited Egypt in March tested positive for the virus. According to the city’s mayor, the 15 people were part of a group of men and women who went on an organised trip between February 25 and March 10.
The Mayor of Meknes, Abdellah Banou, said that "20 of them are currently at the Sidi Said Hospital while four others are at the Military Hospital".
The 15 confirmed cases have all been to Egypt in an organised trip, the Mayor said, adding that one of them had died. After the health authorities confirmed the first infection, the other travellers who were part of the same group were identified and advised to self-isolate and call the authorities once noticing coronavirus symptoms.
Benaissa Benshan, head of the Ismaili Association of Retired teachers in Meknes, who organised the trip during the period between February 25 to March 10, said that 58 people took part to that trip, including him and another official from the association.
"About an hour before our flight landed at the Casablanca airport, they handed us papers, to answer questions about whether we had visited China. And when we arrived at the airport we were not subjected to any examination", Benaissa Benshan said.
The Meknes-based man said that three days after returning to Meknes, a 40-year-old woman started showing symptoms and when her husband called the competent authorities, they told him that Egypt is not considered as an epicentre for the virus. "Things got worse and her condition deteriorated, and she was taken to the military hospital after her infection got confirmed," he added.
The president of the association explained that the health authorities asked the rest of the group to buy thermometers, check their body temperature daily and call if there is something abnormal.
It was confirmed that 16 people had the virus, two are from Fez, and 14 others from Meknes, one of them died last night», meaning after the confirmed cases and deaths were announced yesterday by the health ministry.
The combined figures for Fez/Meknes are now at 88 with the majority being in Meknes. At present there is no definitive number for Fez but it is believed to be 20 or less.
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