Morocco has enough oxygen concentrators to ride out a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, but hospitalizations are reaching an all-time high in parts of the country, driving hospitals and their staff to return to a crisis mode management.
“Hospitals in some Moroccan cities are overcrowded, resuscitation departments are full, and we no longer have vacant beds to accept more people infected with COVID-19,” Moulay Said Afif member of the scientific committee told Hespress English.
Buzzing cities Casablanca and Marrakesh are particularly hit by the surge of the more contagious Delta variant, despite a travel ban and stricter curfews.
The latest data of the Moroccan Ministry of Health says the county has 2,374 serious cases of Covid-19 of whom 1418 are under artificial respiration.
‘Two months ago, the Ministry of Health published reports warning citizens of the high incidence of Covid 19, as it became clear that people did not care about the severity of the current situation,” Afif said, criticizing the little citizen compliance with mask rules and other compulsory measures.
“This caused hospitals in Morocco to be 60 % saturated,” he said, ruling out a shortage of oxygen concentrators.
“We have oxygen equipment. We do not have a problem with oxygen,” he added.
The World Health Organization says one in five people with Covid-19 will need oxygen. In severe cases, the figure rises to three in five.
The Organization does not have country-specific data, but says influx of patients with serious conditions leads to a rise in oxygen demand five to seven times normal levels.
“There are two solutions to this current crisis. The first solution is by respecting the precautionary measures, putting a mask, and avoid crowds, and the second solution is to speed up the vaccination to achieve herd immunity,” Afif said.
Morocco, with its 36 million population gave 16,740,875 people their first shot while 11,980,285 are fully inoculated.
Last week, Morocco reinforced its vaccine stock with 700,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine as it plans to expand vaccination to teenagers aged between 12 and 17, health ministry sources said.
The new shipment is part of an order of almost 2 million doses of the American vaccine which should help safeguard gains made by Morocco’s vaccination campaign and pave the way for a return to normal.
Morocco also received, on Friday, one million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, bringing the total of doses of the Chinese vaccine received so far to 23.5 million. Currently, most of the doses administered in the country are provided by Sinopharm, followed by Johnson and Johnson.
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