Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Health has confirmed the country’s first Omicron death, raising further alarms over the continued spread of the new strain of the COVID-19 virus.
Mourad Mrabet, the coordinator of the National Center for Public Emergency Operations at the Ministry of Health, announced the news during the weekly update on the COVID situation.
Morocco’s first Omicron-linked fatality is an elderly woman who had not not received the booster dose, the minister said.
Morocco had confirmed 28 Omicron cases by late December last year. But the numbers are believed to have gone further up in recent days as the country is experiencing a new, alarming surge in COVID cases.
Of the Omicron cases confirmed in Morocco so far, seven are undergoing treatment in intensive care departments, the ministry announced.
Mrabet said that Morocco has entered the third wave of COVID-19 marked by the mass spread of cases. The country entered this wave three weeks ago, the statement said, urging citizens and residents to be more vigilant in the coming days.
The health official explained that the data shows this wave is “characterized by a large weekly change in the number of cases.”
After reporting less than 300 cases per day, Morocco reported over 2,000 cases per day in the past week.
“This speed in the registration of cases is also confirmed by the level of the weekly development of the positivity rate, which moved in the first week from 1.6 %, to increase dramatically in the last week to 10.2 %,” Mrabet said.
With regards to the reproduction index, the latest data from the ministry showed an accelerating increase in the number of cases reaching 1.39 on Sunday.
The fatality rate is also increasing, with the number of COVID-related deaths increasing from 13 deaths in the first week of the mass spread of the virus to 27 deaths in the last week.
Mrabet called on all citizens to respect preventive measures, including social distancing and correctly wearing face masks.
The official also called on adults and children eligible for the vaccine to receive their doses and the booster shot.
He said that the vaccine contributes significantly to strengthening immunity and minimizing the risks of infection or severe illness amid the spread of the extremely contagious Omicron variant.
