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Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Health confirmed 56 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 3,046 as of 6 p.m. on April 20.
In the past 24 hours, the ministry has confirmed 191 new cases, two deaths, and 23 recoveries. The death toll stands at 143 while total recoveries have climbed to 350.
Health authorities continue to intensify testing for the virus. In the past 24 hours, Moroccan laboratories performed over 1,000 medical tests that came back negative. Since the start of the outbreak on March 2, 13,340 suspected COVID-19 cases tested negative for the virus.
The pandemic continues to spread in several families, and the Ministry of Health has designated several industrial and commercial sites as COVID-19 hotspots.
On April 20, health authorities discovered 31 cases of the virus at a new hotspot in Casablanca. In Tangier, two previously-detected hotspots recorded a total of 46 new cases, bringing their combined total to 97.
Health authorities have so far detected hotspots in several large cities, as well as smaller towns such as Larache and Nador.
Casablanca-Settat and Marrakech-Safi remain the most-affected areas in Morocco, with more than half of the country’s cases detected in the two regions alone.
Daily monitoring of people who made contact with COVID-19 patients remains the most effective method to detect new cases in the country. Around 80% of the cases detected in the past 24 hours (153 cases) tested positive during their monitoring period.
More than 5,814 people are currently under daily monitoring. The monitoring period is set at 14 days after they made contact with patients.
In recent weeks, the mortality rate has been decreasing thanks to early COVID-19 detection, while the recovery rate is increasing. Deaths currently represent 4.7% of the total cases in Morocco, while recoveries represent 11.5%.
The average age of COVID-19 patients in the country currently stands at 42 years. People aged between 40 and 65 years are the most affected by the virus, accounting for 38% of cases, followed by 25 to 40-year-olds.
The average age of recovered patients in 48 years, while the average age of COVID-19 patients who succumbed to the virus is 65 years.
The majority of recovered cases (96%) were asymptomatic or suffered from mild symptoms when they tested positive for the virus. Meanwhile, the majority of COVID-19 deaths (80%) occurred among people who were already in critical condition at the time of detection.
About two-thirds of COVID-19 victims (66%) were men, while one-third (34%) were women. As for recoveries, men and women represent equal numbers with 50% each.
Read also: Morocco Announces COVID-19 Cases Among Staff at 2 More Prisons
