Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the National Center for Public Health Emergency Operations at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection
The national genomic surveillance system continues to track the SARS-Cove-2 mutant circulating in the country. The latest reports from the National Genomics Monitoring Collective indicated that the Omicron mutant is still prevalent with two major submutants (BA.2 49%) and (BA.1 46%), as well as small percentages of other submutants .
The current epidemiological situation is characterized by a “low to very low” transmission of the virus in the different regions of the Kingdom, said Tuesday in Rabat, the coordinator of the National Center for Public Health Emergency Operations at the Ministry of Health and of social protection, Mouad Mrabet
During a meeting with the press devoted to the presentation of the monthly assessment of the epidemic situation (April 13 / May 10, 2022), Mr. Mrabet noted that the spread of the virus continues at a “low to very low” level during this third intermediate period which is still continuing for its tenth consecutive week, since the first week of March 2022.
Regarding weekly new infections, the official reported a rate of less than 1/100,000 people per week for the past four weeks, noting that the weekly positivity rate remained almost unchanged, while it s has stabilized at less than 1% over the same period.
Regarding serious and critical cases, Mr. Mrabet stressed that they are “the lowest since the beginning of the spread of the virus in our country”, adding that the total number of new cases admitted to intensive care units and intensive care has reached 37 cases in the last four weeks, or 9 cases per week.
At the end of the same aforementioned period, a total of 9 deaths were recorded, which remains the lowest number since the advent of the pandemic in Morocco, he said, adding that the last three weeks have recorded the lowest number of deaths since the beginning of community transmission of the virus in the country, in other words, since July 2020, with a total of only 4 deaths, recorded in the last two weeks.
Separately, Mr. Mrabet noted that the National Genomics Surveillance System continues to track the SARS-Cove-2 mutant circulating in the country, noting that the latest reports from the National Genomics Surveillance Collective indicated that the Omicron mutant is still prevalent with two main sub-mutants (BA.2 49%) and (BA.1 46%), as well as small percentages of other sub-mutants.
In relation to the national vaccination campaign, Mr. Mrabet indicated that the coverage rate of the third dose reached 17.1% of the population, with a continuity rate equal to 27.3%.
In this regard, the official said that despite the improvement of the epidemiological situation in Morocco, the level of vigilance remains high, recalling that the ministry urges, in particular the elderly, immunofragile people and people with chronic diseases , to receive the booster dose to increase the level of immunity.
The possibility of the emergence of other variants at the global level is not excluded, said Mrabet, believing that vaccination remains the best way to reduce the risk of infection with the virus, as confirmed by the international organizations and national studies and research on the subject.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare recently conducted a field study involving several provinces and regions, the results of which confirmed the effectiveness of vaccination against serious and critical cases at 80%.
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