COVID-19 Outbreak and Perspective in Morocco

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that
causes COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during an investigation into an outbreak in Wuhan,
China and rapidly spread across the world to become the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
As of 26 March 2020, there are 275 cases affected by COVID-19 announced by the Moroccan government, and it
possible to limit the spread of this serious disease, with the cooperation of all the citizens in respect of the
measures of containment and individual protection. Also, with the announce yesterday by the Moroccan
government of the authorization of use of chloroquine in treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia, COVID-19 will be soon
eradicated from Morocco and hopefully from all over the world

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Electronic Journal of General Medicine
2020, 17(4), em204
e-ISSN: 2516-3507
https://www.ejgm.co.uk/ Perspective Article OPEN ACCESS
COVID-19 Outbreak and Perspective in Morocco
Rachid Ait Addi 1*, Abdelhafid Benksim 1,2, Mohamed Amine 3, Mohamed Cherkaoui 1
1 Laboratory of Human Ecology, Departme nt of Biology, School of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Ma rrakesh. MOROCCO
2 High Institute of Nursing and Technical Health, Marrakesh, MOROCCO
3 Laboratory of Epidemiology, School of Medicine of Marrakesh, MOROCCO
*Corresponding Author: dr.rachid.aitaddi@gmail.com
Citation: Ait Addi R, Benksim A, Amine M, Cherkaoui M. COVID-19 Outbreak and Perspective in Morocco. Electron J Gen Med. 2020;17(4):em204.
https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/7857
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Received: 23 Mar. 2020
Accepted: 26 Mar. 2020
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that
causes COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during an investigation into an outbreak in Wuhan,
China and rapidly spread across the world to become the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
As of 26 March 2020, there are 275 cases affected by COVID-19 announced by the Moroccan government, and it
possible to limit the spread of this serious disease, with the cooperation of all the citizens in respect of the
measures of containment and individual protection. Also, with the announce yesterday by the Moroccan
government of the authorization of use of chloroquine in treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia, COVID-19 will be soon
eradicated from Morocco and hopefully from all over the world
Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, containment, chloroquine, Coronavirus, pneumonia
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness
that can spread from person to person. The virus that causes
COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during
an investigation into an outbreak in Wuhan, China and rapidly
spread across the world to become the first pandemic caused
by a coronavirus (1-3).
The virus spreads principally among people who are in
contact with each other through respiratory droplets produced
when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Also, touching a
surface or object that contaminated by the virus, and
thereafter touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes can cause
COVID-19 infection, but this is not the principal way of the virus
spread (4).
Patients with COVID-19 have mild to severe respiratory
illness with symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath
and it is important to note that new data emerges nearly every
hour regarding clinical characteristics, treatment options, and
outcomes for COVID-19 (5).
The treatment of COVID-19 is initially based on prevention
of contamination by containment measures: in China and
South Korea, the severe application of such interventions has
regularly and drastically reduced new cases, and this
experience shows that a reversion of epidemic growth is
possible in the short-term (6).
After many studies confirms its ability of reduction of
exacerbation of pneumonia, duration of symptoms and delay
of viral clearance all in the absence of severe side effects,
chloroquine is an efficient treatment regarding the prevention
and treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia with the advantage of
negligible cost (7,8).
Hydroxychloroquine has probably the same action on
viruses as that of chloroquine since the mechanism of action of
these two molecules is identical, and hydroxychloroquine can
be prescribed for long periods, which would be therefore the
first choice in the treatment of COVID-19 (9).
At the moment of a massive increase of cases reported all
over the world especially in Italy, France, and Spain, Morocco
recorded his first case of COVID-19 in 01 March 2020. Four days
after, the second case was detected. After that, from 11 to 13
March a new case was discovered each day. Thereafter, 11
cases were detected each day from 17 to 18 March. Between 18
and 20 March 14 cases were detected each day. Then, 19 cases
were detected each day in the period from 20 to 22 March and
28 cases were recorded each day Between 22 and 24 March.
Finally, 55 new cases were added from 24 to 25 March (Figure
1).
Figure 1. Evolution of COVID-19 cases over time in Morocco (10)

2 / 2 Ait Addi et al. / ELECTRON J GEN MED, 2020;17(4):em204
Moroccan government faced different challenges. In one
part, the rapid spread of COVID-19 infection. In other part the
difficult task to aware people about the critic situation and at
the same time avoid sowing panic and convince people to the
idea of containment despite its economic consequences on
households. with its experience of containing pandemics
especially H1N1 pandemic in 2009, the Moroccan government
launched the National monitoring and response plan
Coronavirus infection whose objectives are (1) prevent the
introduction into the national territory of MERS-CoV; (2) Detect
cases early and contain their spread; (3) Organize a national
response adapted from the health system; and (4) Strengthen
infection prevention and control measures in hospitals (11).
The limitation of people circulating outside their home,
social distancing, the cessation of almost all working activities
and the request to the population to use protective masks and
gloves all have the aim of minimizing the likelihood that people
who are not infected come into contact with others who are
already infected and probably still asymptomatic (6). In
Addition, Moroccan government decided to suspend travel to
the countries most affected by the pandemic, and soon after to
close the borders. Also, the Moroccan government unlocked a
billion dollars to fight COVID-19 and conducted several
awareness campaigns to clarify the dangers of COVID-19 and
the need of containment and self-protection measures by local
officials from door to door, television channels, and social
networks. Despite the fact that the majority of Moroccan
citizens have respected the instructions of the government, a
minority of citizens underestimates the seriousness of the
disease and continues to behave as usual. This is often due to
low educational level and economic status, and also to cultural
factors.
As of 26 March 2020, there are 275 cases affected by COVID-
19 announced by the Moroccan government, and it possible to
limit the spread of this serious disease, with the cooperation of
all the citizens in respect of the measures of containment and
individual protection. Also, with the announce yesterday by the
Moroccan government of the authorization of use of
chloroquine in treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia, COVID-19
will be soon eradicated from Morocco and hopefully from all
over the world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors want to acknowledge the Editorial office of the
journal and all the anonymous reviewers. We also thank the
Moroccan govenment for all its efforts, and all health care
workers whom are on the front lines of the pandemic.
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