Omicron variant drives 95% of COVID-19 cases in Morocco

Morocco has been experiencing a significant third wave of COVID-19 infections for the last 5 weeks, which has now been revealed to be dominated by the new Omicron variant, according to the Ministry of Health.

Mouad Mrabet, the coordinator of the National Center for Emergency Operations of Public Health, announced that 95% of the recently recorded COVID-19 cases are dominated by the new Omicron variant, while 5% are of the Delta variant.

Last week, the country recorded 46,569 cases of infection, a weekly increase of 33%, suggesting that the progress of the wave has slowed down, although this does not necessarily indicate a phase of decline.

The weekly evolution of the positivity rate of positivity has increased from 21.7% to 24.4% in the last week, which shows that the circulation of the virus remains high, despite a certain slowdown.

Admissions to resuscitation and intensive care units have increased significantly, with 536 cases recorded during the past week, compared to 42 cases during the first week of the wave, an increase of 48.1%. Deaths due to the virus have also increased 16.1%, as 65 deaths were recorded in the same period.

Mrabet additionally noted that 70% of deaths occurred among unvaccinated people, while 23% are primo-vaccinated and 7% of people who have not received the third booster shot.

Referring to the national vaccination campaign, the official reported a rate of 67.3% for people having received their first dose, 63% for the second dose, and 10.5% for the booster dose.

Omicron has been proven to be more infectious than previous variants, despite having milder symptoms than the Delta variant.

The Ministry reiterated, once again, its call to citizens to avoid any laxing in following precautionary measures and adhere massively to the vaccination campaign, especially the third dose that will contribute to strengthening immunity against the Omicron variant.