“Serious and progressive, but controllable” : Dr. Samir Abdelmoumen summarizes the situation in Tunisia. As a young democracy, however, was the first of the five nations that make up the arab Maghreb to control the pandemic. To the point of being the only country in the region to reopen its borders on June 27, “a political decision and not scientific,” he says. In Morocco, the situation is reversed : the state health emergency has been extended, the border will remain closed until September 10, to a minimum. The number of cases recorded each day by Rabat is six times higher than the highest of the month of April. In Algiers, the situation is considered ” stable “, despite figures three times higher than those cleared in April. The country is facing a surge in cases since the beginning of July.
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concerns in Morocco
If Algeria monopolized concerns, Rabat has now the leadership in the matter. Saïd Ahmidouch, wali of the region of Casablanca-Settat, the first region of the country, concentrating 20% of the population and nearly 30 % of GDP, said there is little that the region was going through a ” particularly difficult situation “, flirting with the 400 cases per day. The one who is also governor of the prefecture of Casablanca, explained that the patients arrived too late in the hospitals. Several factors explain this rise : a part of the industrial fabric continued its activity, the system of care is unevenly distributed on the territory, the time between a suspected case and the test result reaches seven days.
The name of the decree-law relating to the health emergency, the officers of a unit of production of canned fish Safi, a town that is placed at the edge of the Atlantic ocean, almost equidistant from Casablanca and Marrakech, are being prosecuted for failing to comply with the safety rules within the factory. The number of cases detected has been multiplied by three since the 1st of July (from 12 000 to 38 000 to 13 August), 584 deaths compared to 228 as of July 1st. A doctor says that ” access to health is unequal, that life is not the same if you live in Casa where in the region of the Rif “. What about the virus for these ? 30 % of doctors (public and private) are concentrated in the region of Casa-Settat. On the 12th of August has been the worst day that has saved the kingdom of morocco since the beginning of the pandemic : 1 499 new cases, 23 dead in 24 hours. Measures to speed up tests will be introduced. The country has 36 million inhabitants.
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Algeria : the medical staff severely affected
Since July 10, the regional power accounts for nearly 500 new cases per day. The president of the Council of the college of physicians, Mohamed Bekkat Berkani, said in an interview with the newspaper Liberty : “The figures are rather stable, we estimate between 500 and 600 new cases per day, and we can not speak of a second wave. “For comparison, in early may, the country had 200 cases per day ; one hundred in June. They are likely to believe that ” citizens do not accept the recommendations of their leaders “, who seem to never be in phase.
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To Dr. ‘Abd,” the health system is incomprehensible : a country rich, people poor “. He noted that there had been ” many deaths among the nursing staff, of which a large part in the liberal physicians, proof that they do not benefit from the protection equipment “. A shortage of masks FFP2 has been reported these days. The nursing staff receives difficult this element of protection. In total, 70 physicians and nurses died of the virus, and nearly 4,000 have been contaminated. At the highest level of the State, it means the wedding season as one of the factors explaining this increase. However, the authorities have decided to reopen on August 15, the mosques of more than 1,000 seats, as well as the patrolled beaches, cafes, restaurants, spaces for relaxation and recreation. Algeria, 43 million inhabitants, amounts to 37 187 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. And 1 341 deaths.
The situation is serious for the whole of the Maghreb. The numbers of contamination go up. © Yassine Gaidi / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP
Tunisia : after the lull, the rebound
If the situation remains under control, the tunisian authorities are assault of caution. For the Dr. ‘Abd,” the hour of the understanding of the situation will be the beginning of September, when the departure of the Tunisian nationals living abroad, income for the holidays, will have ended “.
53 Tunisians have lost their lives since the beginning of the pandemic, 1 847 cases were diagnosed in a population of a little less than 12 million inhabitants. For some of the mandarins, the very slight bounce noted (22 additional cases on August 12) is explained by ” the recovery of control of the scientific decision-making by the policy.” As early as February, strict measures had been taken. The positive effects were recognized as early as April. With nearly 12 million people, Tunisia has been, for the time being, relatively untouched by the virus. In Libya, the figures have never been as high : 670 new cases in the last 24 hours. The context of libya is disturbed by the conflict between the west and the east that goes on.
For the whole of the Maghreb, the situation is very worrying.
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Covid-19 in Africa : 6 questions in order to understand its developments in Algeria : the cry of alarm of doctors with the Covid-19 Maghreb : the findings of the crash-test Covid-19 Covid-19 : the WHO alert on the “acceleration” of the epidemic in Africa
