Morocco Opts for Confinement Over Mass COVID-19 Testing Strategy

While the global toll of the pandemic is estimated on March 27 at 560,000 infections and 25,300 deaths, some countries have managed to combine "confinement and social distancing" with other solutions considered effective against covid-19. This is the case of South Korea, which from the first cases recorded on the territory, has carried out more than 300,000 screening tests per day. The goal is to be able to identify the infected and the people who have been in contact with them, in order to proceed with their early isolation.

According to lebrief.ma, it is this method that has allowed South Korea to record only 140 deaths related to the coronavirus, despite "its proximity to the first epicenter of the pandemic, China". Singapore and Taiwan have also adopted the same method, recording only infinitesimal numbers of deaths since the start of the pandemic.

However, this does not convince some countries like France and the United States to embark on it. France has decided to reserve screening tests for extremely suspicious cases, due to the insufficient number of tests available in the country. Even the United States, whose number of infections has surpassed that of China and Italy, are also reluctant due to the number of tests available.

But what about Morocco? According to H24Info quoted by lebrief.ma, "900 screening tests have been carried out since the appearance of the first case of coronavirus contamination in the kingdom". The Moroccan authorities prefer to strictly follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization by placing people suspected of being infected in quarantine rather than subjecting them to tests.

According to Joumana El Turk, microbiologist and dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the International University of Casablanca, this decision is explained by the lack of financial, material and human resources. For her, the country "is barely able to test sick people". She also points out that "the current tests are quite complex" and "that it takes almost half a day to get the results".

Furthermore, the microbiologist stated that Morocco was not prepared to face a pandemic of such magnitude. However, she announced that "new faster tests will be available with a waiting time of only 45 minutes to get a result". But in the meantime, Morocco prefers to continue to urge the population to stay at home and observe the relevant hygiene rules. It is in this context that since Friday, March 20, the state of health emergency has been declared, with among other things, the closure of all schools, universities, mosques and all public spaces, recalls the same source.