Morocco braces for Omicron wave

Morocco expects Omicron to be the dominating Covid-19 variant in the few upcoming days and has urged citizens to take a third dose to reinforce collective immunity, health minister Khalid Ait Taleb said.

Speaking to AL Oula TV channel, Ait Taleb said that Omicron can spread five times faster than Delta but its lethality rate was lower.

Morocco has banned all incoming passenger flights since November 29 and imposed restrictions including a night curfew starting 00:00 on new year’s eve to contain the virus.

Health ministry’s experts expect the Omicron wave to last shorter but to affect a larger number due to the high contagiousness of the virus.

The health ministry has narrowed the span between the second and the booster jab to four months only and asked people who took Jansen to take a second dose after four months as well.

Morocco has Africa’s largest vaccination campaign inoculating so far 24.5 million people. But only 2.86 million people took a booster jab.