Coronavirus: Morocco Reports First Death

An 89-year-old woman died Tuesday in Casablanca from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the ministry of Health has announced.

 

The patient was suffering from chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The intervention of doctors specialized in epidemiologic diseases, virology and resuscitation could no save the woman, who was diagnosed positive last week.

The woman who came to Morocco from Bologna in northern Italy on Feb.28 was in a critical condition, the health ministry had said.

The two other cases confirmed in Morocco, a young man, 39, who arrived recently from Italy and a French tourist who arrived in Marrakech on Saturday, are in a “satisfactory” condition, the health ministry said.

 

“The two cases are in a rather satisfactory condition and do not suffer from any complication,” director of epidemiology and disease control at the ministry of health, Mohamed El Youbi, told the media.

The young man, the first confirmed case in Morocco, “no longer has coronavirus symptoms but should not leave the hospital before the completion of all the necessary tests and examinations,” said El Youbi.

 

The health ministry official stressed the need not to confuse the virus incubation period with the period of treatment or hospitalization, which varies according to the case and can last up to one month or more.

As to the French tourist, he is currently hospitalized in Marrakech and “his condition is not worrying,” the ministry said.

 

According to the ministry of health, the Kingdom is still in the first phase of infection with the novel coronavirus as all the confirmed cases came from abroad.