Rabat, Jan 15 (IANS): Morocco registered 8,501 new Covid-19 cases during the past 24 hours, bringing the overall case tally to 1,034,399, the Moroccan Ministry of Health has said.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Morocco rose by nine to 14,954, the Ministry added on Friday in a statement.

Morocco saw a huge surge of positive Covid-19 cases for the second consecutive week, due to the Omicron variant, although the North African country has since November 29, 2021, banned all international flights and closed it's air borders until January 31, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the total number of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in Morocco reached 23,006,557, representing more than 75 per cent of the target population, the statement said.

So far, a total of 24,611,313 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Morocco, as well as 3,764,532 third booster shots, it added.

The North African country launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on January 28, 2021, after the arrival of the first shipment of China's Sinopharm vaccines.