Morocco Aims to Vaccinate 80% of Adults in COVID-19 Immunization Plan

Morocco is participating in phase 3 of the multicenter clinical trials of the Covid-19 vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm. In this context, it plans to "vaccinate 80% of people over 18 in four months," said a source close to the Ministry of Health.

The Kingdom had signed an agreement in August to participate in China’s clinical trials with the United Arab Emirates, Peru and Argentina. Three establishments have been chosen to host the 600 volunteers authorized to participate in these trials.

"All the volunteers received their first injection. The two sites in Rabat have even finished injecting the second dose intended for the volunteers after 21 days. This stage is practically finalized in Casablanca," said Professor Kamal Marhoum El Filali, head of the infectious disease department at the Ibn Rochd University Hospital in Casablanca and supervisor of the operation. "We monitored the tolerance of the first dose administered. For the moment, in view of the results, we have observed some minor common reactions such as fever, minor pains, but nothing that exceeds the usual effects of vaccines," he stressed.

It should be noted that the phase 3 trials will be completed once the clinical results of the effects of the second dose are determined, to approve the vaccine’s efficacy. In addition, Morocco signed a memorandum of understanding on September 18 for the acquisition of Covid-19 vaccines produced by the R-Pharm company, under license from the AstraZeneca group. Thus, the campaign that will soon begin will cover nearly 19 million people, including the medical staff, the security forces, people with comorbidities and people over 65, specifies sputniknews.com.