Is Morocco about to face a third coronavirus wave?

Morocco has taken the painful decision of extending the night curfew in Ramadan due to fears of a surge in infections as new virus variants emerge in the country.

Moroccan health professors have warned that local variants have emerged although the health ministry down played the phenomenon, saying that these new virus strains are a global phenomenon that does not pose a risk to the health situation.

However, experts maintain that if restrictions were loosened Morocco could face a far more dangerous third wave warning of the lethality of the British strain in particular, Medias24 reported.

Speaking at a seminar recently, professor Mohamed Amine Berraho warned that during the last six weeks Morocco has reported a steep rise in cases and contagion ratio which jumped to 1.

Professor Ghassane Adib, for his part, pointed out that though arrivals to intensive care are stable, caution remains necessary, noting that Morocco moved from registering 2772 coronavirus cases in the week of March 15 to 21 to 3538 cases on March 29-April 04.

Other participants urged health authorities to foster testing capacity which has shrunk from 25,000 daily to some 7000.

Morocco counts half a million coronavirus cases and 8900 deaths.

Morocco is also the country which has vaccinated most people in Africa by administering 8.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines.