As the global pandemic threatened North Africa, Morocco, like so many countries, was unready to defend against it.

Its health information systems were weak, outdated, and underfunded. Data was manually collected and siloed. Information tended to be listed on paper forms rather than in the cloud.

Given the circumstances, it was difficult for health officials to identify high-risk regions, spreaders, and asymptomatic patients. Administrative delays prevented all but a few labs from testing. But even when the results came in, details about available drugs were hazy at best.

A Need for the Ugly Truth

Aggravating the situation was the nature of the Moroccan healthcare system, which was divided into complicated layers, distinguishing facilities by location, university affiliation, and other categories.