COVID-19 Surge Overwhelms Major Moroccan Cities as Cases Multiply

Professor Nabil Kanjaa, head of the intensive care unit at the Fez University Hospital, describes "a trying situation... which is not without consequences and suffering for the patients and the medical staff". In the Sahb El Ouard district of Fez, a general practitioner confides that "75% of the patients he sees in consultation show symptoms of Covid-19".

The situation is also alarming at the Ibn Al Baytar hospital. Test requests are pouring in but the staff is struggling to meet the demand. "We have symptomatic cases among our workers, to whom we have clearly stated that the hospital no longer does tests," laments a textile worker. A university hospital doctor complains about "the contamination of his family home (the couple, 2 children aged 3 and 7, the parents and the brother)".

"I have been asking for screening tests for 4 days... but in vain. My husband has had a fever for 11 days, but I can’t find an interlocutor," confides this doctor to L’Économiste. "To avoid contaminating poor people, I refuse to have him scanned in a private clinic," she adds.

The cases of contamination are soaring in the cities of Marrakech, Tangier and Casablanca. "If the situation is not brought under control as soon as possible, we will have daily infections in the thousands during the real flu season," warns an expert on the Moroccan health system. For him, "leadership and corrective action are required immediately".