Morocco Expects COVID-19 Peak in Late January, Health Minister Reports

Morocco has thus gone from "685 to 5,258 intensive care beds and from 22,000 to 28,000 hospital beds," he said in an interview with Jeune Afrique. Regarding the new Omicron variant, Khalid Ait Taleb stressed that the hospital capacity occupied at 5.80% of intensive care beds could increase with the multiplication of cases of contamination. "The peak should be reached around the end of January and early February."

Even though throughout his intervention the minister sought to be reassuring about the indicators available to Morocco, he stressed that the health system in Morocco faces certain difficulties in terms of human resources: shortages of doctors and nurses, and the level of exhaustion of the staff.

The Minister of Health also addressed the issue of the management of the vaccination campaign, pleading for national health sovereignty that could allow Morocco to manufacture its own vaccines. "If our capacities were to exceed national needs, we would help neighboring and continental countries," promised Khalid Ait Taleb.