COVID-19 Cases Continue to Drop in Morocco

People wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, during a national coronavirus vaccination campaign, in Sale, Morocco January 29, 2021. (Reuters)
People wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, during a national coronavirus vaccination campaign, in Sale, Morocco January 29, 2021. (Reuters)
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COVID-19 Cases Continue to Drop in Morocco

People wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, during a national coronavirus vaccination campaign, in Sale, Morocco January 29, 2021. (Reuters)
People wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, during a national coronavirus vaccination campaign, in Sale, Morocco January 29, 2021. (Reuters)

Morocco has been witnessing a steady decline in COVID-19 cases for five straight weeks, Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Head of the department of communicable diseases, Abdelkrim Meziane Bellefquih warned however, that high numbers of critical cases and deaths continue to be recorded.

During a bimonthly briefing on the outbreak in the country, he said infections fell from 42,424 cases per week recorded at the end of August to 20,562 last week, a decrease of 52 percent.

“The number of critical cases fell by 30 percent, from 2,537 two weeks ago to 1,764 until Monday while the occupancy rate of beds dedicated to critical cases rose from 50 percent to 33 percent during the same period,” he added.

Tackling the COVID-19 vaccination process, Meziane Bellefquih stressed Morocco has administered over 36 million injections, calling for the strictest compliance to preventive measures and for more people to sign up to receive the jab.



Lebanon Calls for Negotiations Following US Strikes on Iran

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun
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Lebanon Calls for Negotiations Following US Strikes on Iran

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun

Following American strikes on Iran that fueled fears of a wider conflict, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Sunday that the US bombing could lead to a regional conflict that no country could bear and called for negotiations.

“Lebanon, its leadership, parties, and people, are aware today, more than ever before, that it has paid a heavy price for the wars that erupted on its land and in the region,” Aoun said in a statement on X. “It is unwilling to pay more”, he added.

Iran and Israel traded air and missile strikes as the world braced on Monday for Tehran's response to the US attack on its nuclear sites and US President Donald Trump raised the idea of regime change in Iran. Iran vowed to defend itself on Sunday, a day after the US joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the country since its 1979 Iranian Revolution, despite calls for restraint and a return to diplomacy from around the world.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has long been considered Iran’s first line of defense in case of a war with Israel. But since Israel launched its massive barrage against Iran, triggering the ongoing Israel-Iran war, the Lebanese group has stayed out of the fray — even after the US entered the conflict Sunday with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Lebanese government officials have pressed the group to stay out of the conflict, saying that Lebanon cannot handle another damaging war, and US envoy Tom Barrack, who visited Lebanon last week, said it would be a “very bad decision” for Hezbollah to get involved.