Morocco Detects New COVID-19 Variants as Cases Stabilize

In his recent outing, the director of the biotechnology laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Prof. Azzeddine Ibrahimi, provided rather reassuring data: "The infection figures we are seeing now are stable, because we have not yet reached the exponential spread of the British strain, which we will certainly see in the coming weeks [...] and here I must specify that the British strain is spreading and that the E484 K mutation has started to appear in Morocco," reports Aujourd’hui Le Maroc.

Tests carried out on more than 200 virus genomes show that "the emergence of mutated strains has increased since February, and we have identified all their types in Morocco," added the Professor in a recent post on his Facebook page, calling the population to be vigilant on the eve of Ramadan. Moreover, this mutation called E484 K, attributed to the South African and Brazilian variants, is very dangerous and makes the Covid-19 virus 13 times more active in attaching to skin cells and, at worst, can resist the antibodies of people who have already been vaccinated or immunized, notes the same source.

To recall, 305 new Covid-19 cases and 392 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours in Morocco, for a total of 488,937 cases of contamination since the first case reported in March 2020, against 475,849 people cured, the Ministry of Health said last Sunday, noting that the number of active cases is 4,365, against 395 severe or critical cases, including 25 placed under incubation. As for the number of people who have received the first dose of the vaccine, last Saturday, they were 4,210,770, while 1,471,738 have received the second dose.

In this context, the Spanish agency EFE praised Morocco, indicating that the kingdom has "successfully" managed the response to the coronavirus, by imposing confinement, the acquisition of protective masks, the "state of health emergency" and the rapid implementation of the vaccination process from the appearance of the first case. However, caution is recommended in the face of this new mutation.