Morocco will further loosen lockdown measures for the services sector and domestic transport starting June 24, the government said on Sunday.

Cafes, restaurants, sports clubs and other services and entertainment businesses will be able to resume activity at half capacity except in the provinces of Tangier, Larache, Marrakech and Kenitra, where infections remain higher, it said. 

Domestic flights will start operations starting June 25, while international passenger traffic remains suspended.

Mosques have been closed since the lockdown started on March 20 and the state of emergency was extended to July 10. Schools will only reopen in September.

Most coronavirus cases registered recently were in industrial or among extended families, with 457 cases on Friday, the largest single-day rise in cases, in a cluster linked to fruit packaging plants north of Rabat, where a field hospital was set up.

Morocco has grouped COVID-19 patients in two hospitals near Casablanca and near Marrakech to free capacity at other hospitals.

By Sunday morning, Morocco had recorded 9,957 cases, including 213 deaths and 8,249 recoveries. The country has airlifted Moroccan-made medical supplies to 15 African countries, including 8 million masks, protective gear, sanitizer and medicine.

(Cover: A staff disinfects to avoid contamination with the COVID-19 at the Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca, Morocco, June 16, 2020. /AP)