Morocco Battles Third Covid Wave as Cases Surge and ICUs Face Pressure

Signs of a third wave are multiplying in the Kingdom. While the government is multiplying health restrictions and expanding vaccination to a large segment of the population, Morocco is facing an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases week after week, according to figures from the ministry.

On his LinkedIn page, the coordinator of the National Public Health Emergency Operations Center at the Ministry of Health, Mouad Mrabet, points out that the Covid-19 reproduction rate in Morocco has seen a significant drop in one week. It was 1.19 on August 8, 2021, after reaching 1.47 on August 1, 2021, he notes, specifying that this rate (R0) is approaching 1. Morocco would thus be in the process of flattening the epidemic curve, he added.

"The basic reproduction number (R0) corresponds to the average number of people that a person infected with Covid-19 is likely to infect in a population with no immunity and no public health intervention," he explains.

In epidemiology, a Covid-19 wave is characterized by an ascending phase, a peak and a descending phase. "During the ascending phase, the R0 is > 1. Thus, each case infects more than one person and therefore automatically at each time T, more cases are recorded than in T-1. Each wave has a peak, namely a maximum of cases," notes Dr. Mouad Mrabet.

"Preventive and restrictive measures must be rigorously respected more than ever," he concludes.