Effective Tuesday April 7th, 2020, local time, Moroccans who leave home without face masks risk prison sentences of up to 3 months along with fines of up to the equivalent of 126 United States dollars. The decision was announced after a government meeting discussing ways to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, and will be imposed for the remainder of the month-long state of emergency declared on March 19th, 2020.

Face masks are now being sold at a subsidized price of 8 US cents per unit, and the nation is expected to produce nearly 6 million masks a day by next week. Currently, Morocco has reported 1,184 confirmed cases of Covid-19 alongside over 90 deaths. Over 8,600 people nationwide have been arrested and charged for failing to follow lockdown rules including leaving home for purposes other than to buy necessities such as food, medicine, and hygienic products, selling counterfeit goods, and going to work without a permit.

Note: The photo of the masks was taken by myself while the flag of Morocco was found on the public domain, needing no attribution even for commercial purposes. Statistics and numbers were retrieved from the Moroccan Ministry of Health (https://www.sante.gov.ma/Pages/Accueil.aspx) and the nation's Ministry of Health's Twitter account (https://twitter.com/Ministere_Sante?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor).