All the epidemiological indicators confirm Morocco’s entry into the community transmission phase since five to six weeks, with a peak expected “in the next few days”, said, Tuesday, the ministry of Health in its bimonthly report on the evolution of the COVID-19 situation. Morocco is “in a progressive phase of the epidemiological curve which could reach the peak in the very next days”, underlined the head of the division of the communicable diseases, Abdelkrim Meziane Bellefquih, during the presentation of the report, which indicates a surge in cases in all regions.
New cases increased by 133% during the period from July 20 to August 2, during which the country has approached two times the threshold of 10,000 cases per day, he added. The virus’s reproduction rate worsened for the sixth consecutive week, standing at 1.47, a rate twice the target set by the National Plan for Monitoring and Responding to Coronavirus, which is 0.7.
The positivity rate jumped from 10.7% to 20.38% during this period. The highest rate was reported in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region (39%) while the lowest was recorded in Fez-Meknes (4%). The positive cases recorded up to August 2 amounted to 633,923, i.e. a cumulative incidence rate of 1,739 per 100,000 inhabitants, while the number of deaths stood at 9,885 cases, i.e. a case fatality rate of 1, 6%, against a worldwide rate of 2.1%.
Active cases have also seen a worrying increase, from 15,253 to 54,586 as of Monday, August 2, 2021 (+ 257%). New critical cases in intensive care units followed the same uptrend, rising to 860 cases from 413 two weeks ago (+ 108%).
The number of weekly tests continues to record a significant increase, from 140,000 to more than 250,000 in the last week, for a daily average of 35,000. As a result, Morocco has crossed the mark of 7 million tests carried out so far. The numbers of intubated patients and deaths have increased by 22% and 75% respectively during the last two weeks, said Bellefquih, who urged citizens to prepare well to face this situation, to avoid further human losses and “to protect the health system from a test of which the outcome is unknown”.
The ministry therefore calls for more responsibility and citizenship, strict compliance with preventive measures and active participation in the national vaccination campaign, he said. The official underlined the continuation of the vaccination campaign for the 27th consecutive week, since its launch by His Majesty King Mohammed VI on January 28, noting that more than 24.25 million doses have been administrated, with 10,283,660 people fully vaccinated.
Morocco has received new quantities of Chinese Sinopharm and US Janssen vaccines at the end of last week, which allows health authorities to continue the vaccination operation under good conditions. In order to intensify this campaign, vaccination has been extended to people aged over 25 and vaccination centers remain open every day until 8:00 p.m.
