Tayeb Hamdi, a Moroccan doctor and researcher in health policies and systems, has said that Morocco’s government cannot risk letting the new strain of the COVID virus enter Moroccan territory while the country’s experts and health practitioners do not have enough data to effectively tackle any potential outbreak of the new variant.
Reiterating his concerns about the reportedly more dangerous and more contagious Omicron variant, Hamdi said in a statement to the press on Monday that there is much missing data about the new variant, particularly about the speed of its spread, its ferocity, the number of serious cases and deaths due to the new strain, as well as the effectiveness of vaccines against it.
He lauded Morocco’s proactive measures to contain the spread of the new strain of the COVID-19 virus, including the recently announced two-week travel ban. He emphasized that the two weeks period is important to compile sufficient data on the new variant and have a broad picture of the infection trend.
“The competent authorities will have sufficient data to manage the phase related to the new data,” he said.
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Hamdi announced that Moroccan laboratories have already started research to assess whether the vaccines used in Morocco and worldwide are effective against Omicron.
“We are facing an equation and we do not have enough data to resolve it, especially with regard to the rapid spread,” he warned.
Like other experts and government officials, Hamdi urged citizens and residents to get vaccinated and adhere to all the measures the government has put in place to address the COVID crisis..
This is not the first time that Hamdi has sounded the alarm bell over the danger of a potential Omicron outbreak in Morocco.
“If this new variant turns out to be slightly more transmissible than Delta, which is currently the dominant one, the situation should not see a noticeable change, whereas if the transmissibility reaches 50% or more than Delta, the world will face new, very strong waves [of COVID infections], especially in under-vaccinated countries,” he said in an analysis last week.
