Morocco’s Covid-19 Reproduction Rate Holds Steady at 1.2 as Cases Surpass 100,000

Abdelkrim Meziane, head of the communicable diseases division at the Directorate of Epidemiology and Disease Control at the Ministry of Health, said that Morocco intends to lower this rate to -1. The symbolic ceiling of 100,000 cases of infection has been reached, as well as the ceiling of 20,000 active cases and 2,000 deaths, he noted. This is due to the expansion of the coronavirus diagnostic network by private medical analysis laboratories.

According to Mr. Meziane, an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases was observed between the three periods from August 15 to 30, August 31 to September 14, and September 15 to 28. Thus, the number increased from 22,158 in mid-August to 26,804 in the first half of September, then to 29,428 in the second half of the month. Deduction: the increase is about 10% between the last two periods.

As for the number of deaths, the official speaks of an average of 500 deaths per fortnight during these three periods. He also recalled that until last Monday, the number of infections in the kingdom was around 119,107 since the first case reported on March 2, with a cumulative incidence rate of 328/100,000 inhabitants. He added that the recovery rate is 81% and the fatality rate is 1.8%, with no less than 2,113 deaths recorded.

Mr. Meziane also looked at the distribution of the weekly incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants over the past three weeks. It should be noted that the regions concerned by an incidence rate of 20/100,000 inhabitants are Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima and Fès-Meknès. As for the regions of Casablanca-Settat, Draâ-Tafilalet and Dakhla-Oued Eddahab, they recorded more than 50 infections/100,000 inhabitants.

The statistics also indicate that Morocco ranks 31st worldwide and 2nd in Africa in terms of the number of tests, with more than 165,000 Covid-19 tests per week, with an average of 23,500 tests per day, he said, specifying that the percentage of positive results is increasing, from 5.9% at the beginning of the month to 9.7%.