Earlier this month, Mustapha Ennaji warned that the drop in the number of COVID-19 cases in Morocco is due to the decrease in screening tests.
Abdelkrim Meziane Belfkih, the head of the division of communicable diseases of the department of Epidemiology Disease Control at the Moroccan Ministry of Health, has announced a slight but continuous drop in Morocco’s COVID-19 reproduction rate (R0).
Speaking on Tuesday in Rabat, Meziane Belfkih presented the bimonthly report on the epidemiological situation in Morocco.
He noted that the slightly positive change in the epidemic in Morocco is a result of both government efforts and citizens’ respect for pandemic measures.
Belfkih also appeared to predict that the virus’ reproduction rate could decrease in Morocco to less than 0.7 in the next few days, saying that the country’s weekly epidemiology witnessed a decline of -26% by January 3.
Before the New Year festive period, Morocco’s government reinforced national lockdown measures. These included a night curfew for three weeks until further notice, as well as the closure of shops, cafes, and restaurants at 9 p.m.
In major cities like Tangier, Marrakech, and others, Morocco announced the total closure of restaurants.
This decrease in the virus’s reproduction rate was more evident in 10 regions across the kingdom, namely Draa-Tafilalet (-48.9%), the eastern region (-43%), Guelmim-Oued Noun (-38.9%), Rabat-Salé-Kenitra (-33.3%), Casablanca-Settat (-29.3%), Souss-Massa (-25.6%), Fez-Meknes (-24.2%), Marrakech-Safi (-23.2 %), Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra (-20.2%) and Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima (-10%).
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During an interview with Moroccan television 2M earlier this month, the director of the virology laboratory at Hassan II University in Casablanca, Mustapha Ennaji warned that the drop in the number of COVID-19 cases in Morocco is due to the decrease in screening tests.
In recent days, Morocco detected 1,000 to 800 COVID-19 cases a day, down from approximately 4,000 new cases per day in the past few months. The country also used to carry out 26,000 tests per day, whereas now the country performs less than 10,000 tests daily.
