The current COVID-19 wave is expected to end in the upcoming days as the country enters an interim period characterized by a slow spread of the virus, said Health official Mouad Merabet on Tuesday while presenting the monthly epidemiological bulletin.
The country experienced the fifth COVID-19 wave this December, added the Health official.
The official described this wave as light in terms of the spread, which began in the first week of November, and reached its peak four weeks later.
“New infections began to decline since the beginning of this month, as the level of virus prevalence is currently considered weak,” he added, noting that this virus wave did not reach the degree of a high red level nationwide.
The Omicron variant is still the most dominant in the country and even globally, as the current wave resulted from the sub-variant BQ.1 and its derivatives.
“BQ.1 and its strains make up 91%, followed by XBB.1 with 4%, while 5% is divided among other Omicron subvariants,” according to data from the national reference laboratories for genomic monitoring.
The current official international data indicate that there are no fundamental differences in the severity of the disease in the new strains compared to the previous Omicron subvariants, contrary to what is rumored in some social media.
The current wave is also characterized by an important decrease in terms of virulence and lethality, as only 49 cases were admitted to intensive care units, while 13 people died of complications from the disease, specified the same source.
The lethality rate is set at 0.2%, 3 times less than the lethality index recorded during the first Omicron wave, which had a lethality of 0.6%, added the same source.
Regarding this wave’s recorded deaths, the average age was 65, all of them were suffering from chronic diseases and immune fragility, and none of them received the booster shot, explained the same source.
In terms of the national vaccination campaign, the booster shot coverage rate reached 18.7%, while over 57,700 people received the fourth reminder shot, added the Health Ministry’s data.
The Ministry of Health called on people who show respiratory symptoms to wear masks, suspend activity and receive appropriate treatment, recalling elderly or chronically ill people of the need to receive booster shots to avoid infection.
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