Isolation proves a tall order for poor
rabat — Isolation to keep coronavirus at bay is a tall order for Moroccans like Abdellah, who is supposed to spend days cooped up indoors without sunlight in an impoverished neighbourhood of the capital Rabat.
So he stays out in the street. “I know social isolation is a must. But it’s just not possible to stay home all day,” says the 49-year-old street trader who lives with his wife and three children.
Ever since a March 20 lockdown, flats in densely-populated areas like Takadoum, which is packed with concrete buildings up to four floors high with tiny windows, can feel like virtual prisons.
Those who respect the stay-athome rules gather inside the gates of the buildings just to kill time. Many venture out.
“We’re just overcrowded and it’s not easy,” said Soufiane, 32, who lives in a two-bedroom flat with his parents and five siblings, although he is aware of “the seriousness of the illness and importance of quarantine”. Soufiane made a living by selling clothes at a local market, which is closed and whose neighbourhood is hemmed in by checkpoints.
Neighbour Abdelkhalek, 52, said his five-member family could put up with living “on top of each other in 40 square metres) but how can we do that without an income?”
Moroccan authorities have deployed police, soldiers and even armoured cars in some towns to enforce the lockdown, as the country’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic rose to 33 on Tuesday out of 574 declared cases. —