Morocco has entered the fourth COVID-19 wave, fueled by the Omicron variant, said coordinator at the National Center for Emergency Operations of Public Health of the Ministry Mouad Merabet in a recent LinkedIn post.
The country recently experienced its 7th consecutive week of increased new infections and growing positivity rates, as well as the 5th week of the second Omicron wave, which was dominated by increased circulation of the BA.5 subvariant.
Additionally, the average number of daily new infections rose by more than 2,300 over the last 3 weeks, representing 22% of its previous peak, said Reuters in its latest COVID tracker released Tuesday.
Mrabet said the first Omicron wave lasted 11 weeks, and the current second wave appears to be very fast and will most likely be shorter.
“In terms of viral circulation, the two waves are nearly equal, though the overall positivity rate shows a distinct decrease during the current wave compared to the previous wave,” he further stated.
As of June 26, the Effective Reproduction Rate was 1.16, which is greater than 1 in all regions, indicating that transmission is high, according to the health official.
“For the time being, COVID-19 severity and lethality are lower during the second Omicron wave than in the first variant’s wave,” added the Health official.
During the first five weeks of the first Omicron wave, the proportion of severe COVID-19 cases and the lethality ratio were 1.2% and 0.2% respectively, while are now only 0.6% and 0.1%, realizing that this wave is milder, specified Doctor Merabet.
The peak in new infections is expected this week and will last until the following week.
“Unfortunately, COVID-19 severe cases and deaths will increase in the upcoming weeks,” he added.
Last week, there were 110 new admissions to intensive care units and 34 discharges after clinical improvement, said the Health official.
“Nevertheless, the overall severity and lethality rates of the second Omicron wave will most likely be lower than the previous wave,” he further stated.
The severity and lethality rates would have been much lower if there had been good coverage with the booster shot for people with underlying health conditions, the Health official concluded in his LinkedIn post.
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