COVID-19: Morocco to deploy neighborhood referral centers
Morocco’s Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb announced Wednesday the establishment of COVID-19 referral health centers in neighborhoods throughout Morocco.
The measure comes to increase the number of screening centers and improve access to urgent care in efforts to curb the spread of the virus, said the official in a virtual conference organized by the Moroccan Society of Medical Sciences (SMSM).
Ait Taleb said the health centers will be deployed in the different neighborhoods to receive suspected cases of Covid-19 that will be transferred to them by doctors from the private or public sectors, or by pharmacies located at the level of each neighborhood.
The deployment of these centers aims in particular to increase the number of diagnostic spaces for urgent patient care, and target suspected cases by carrying out the tests and treatment necessary to address the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Morocco. It will also serve to identify asymptomatic cases and mitigate the risk that these cases have on the rest of the population.
Asymptomatic cases who do not suffer from a chronic disease and pose no risk to their entourage can be treated at home, in coordination with representatives of the territorial administration, he said.
Local pharmacies and medical professionals will collaborate with the special neighborhood COVID-19 healthcare centers in order to provide proper treatment and care.
Morocco has recorded lately a spike in coronavirus cases, which hit an all high daily tally on Wednesday to 1499 cases and 23 deaths. Overall, Morocco has registered 36694 cases including 556 deaths and 25677 recoveries since the first case was detected in the country on March 2.
For the Health Minister, the rise in the number of cases was expected after the lifting of the nationwide lockdown measures and the increase in the number of diagnostic tests. He called on citizens to remain vigilant to cope with the spread of the pandemic and to avoid exceeding the capacity of the health care system.
