Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – The new COVID-19 strain has no consequences on the clinical situation or the vaccine Morocco’s people are expecting, Director of the Medical Biotechnology Laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rabat Azzedine Ibrahimi said.
The health expert reassured citizens that the new strain of the virus has no consequences on the clinical state of COVID-19 carriers, because there is no study which proves an influence of this new variant on the mortality rate to date.
The new COVID-19 strain also has no confirmed effect on the vaccines laboratories have developed, the health expert told Morocco’s state news agency on Monday.
“Fear aroused by the appearance of this new strain is normal and usual each time a mutation takes place, and in the absence of precise information, rumors and fake news flourish, especially on social networks.”
Ibrahimi added that Morocco must adopt a worst-case scenario approach to face epidemics and pandemics. The situation led several countries to suspend air travel with the UK, including Morocco.
The health expert said the new COVID-19 strain is not as of yet present in Morocco.
“This was confirmed by the analysis of more than 100 genomes during the period of the pandemic, and 32 genomes in December alone,” the health official explained.
Director of the virology laboratory at Hassan II-Casablanca University, Moulay Mostafa Naji, clarified that the coronavirus has undergone a total of nine mutations.
Health officials detected the most recent mutation in the UK.
Naji recalled that the new strain increases the reproduction rate of the virus by nearly 70%, which means that 5% of infected people could be in a critical state of health.
Such a situation would put more pressure on the health system, the professor explained.
He, however, refuted that the new strain spreading in Europe could be more severe or deadly.
“The vaccine remains effective, and even if there is an effect, it will not be major,” he added.
The professor also called on Moroccans to comply with the upcoming vaccination operation to build collective immunity to allow the country to emerge from the pandemic and resume the normal course of life.
