Covid-19: 157% Increase in Number of Cases in August (HCP)

The number of Coronavirus infections has increased sharply in the post-lockdown period, exceeding 1,000 cases per day at the end of July 2020, with a 157% increase in the number of cases in August in comparison with the first five months of the epidemic, said the High Commission for Planning (HCP).

According to data as of September 20, 2020, the number of active cases still fluctuates around 20,000, but that of daily deaths has increased at a rate of 30 to 40 cases per day since the end of July, reflecting a persistent rise in contamination of vulnerable people, underlined the HCP, which has just released its latest publication “Les Brefs du Plan”, entitled “Covid-19 epidemic situation and prospects for evolution in Morocco by the end of 2020”.

With regard to the rates of use of bed capacities for hospitalization and resuscitation, they stood at 33.7% and 4% respectively at the beginning of May 2020, which coincided with the continued application of the generalized quarantine measures, said the HCP, noting that after lifting the quarantine restrictions, strong pressure was put on the health system, with a rapid growth in hospitalized cases.

Taking into account a proportion of asymptomatic cases amounting to 75% of all infected cases and the maintenance of the bed capacity at the levels recorded at the beginning of May 2020, the national health system will be in a “state of saturation” if the number of active cases exceeds 31,000, it explained.

In addition, the HCP noted that the rise in contaminations linked to Covid-19 during the post-quarantine period hides a heterogeneous regional epidemic development, in particular at the level of Casablanca-Settat, Marrakech-Safi, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Tangier-Tétouan and Fez-Meknes.

The said publication sheds light on the epidemic situation linked to Covid-19 since the lifting of lockdown in Morocco as well as its prospects for development by the end of 2020.