Morocco Faces PCR Test Shortage as COVID-19 Cases Surge

The growing demand for PCR tests is putting laboratories and suppliers in great difficulty. Some suppliers are no longer able to supply laboratories with extraction kits and amplification reagents, explains Dr. Ayoub Boughaidi, director of the Riad Tétouan medical analysis laboratory in Tangier.

"After the sampling, we have to perform a virus extraction and this step requires an extraction kit (reagent) and a corresponding machine called an extractor. A PCR test cannot be performed without going through this step," reports H24infos.

He points out that in the face of shortages, "some laboratories had to buy new extractors whose corresponding kits are available in order to ensure the continuity of their activity." The doctor explains that "the suppliers who import these kits were not able to meet the needs of all the laboratories," noting that for some suppliers, the inability to find sampling kits.

Unfortunately, this situation arises at a time when Morocco is experiencing a sharp increase in infection cases, with an average of 10,000 cases per day in recent weeks.