Morocco Approves Locally-Made Ventilators, Boosting COVID-19 Response

"We are on the right track. It is premature to talk about this for the moment, but we have made a lot of progress with the Ministry of Health," says an industrialist, member of the medical cluster behind this initiative. By giving its authorization for the certification of the 100% Moroccan artificial respirator, the health authorities have just taken a big step towards the marketing of this product, which could give more chances to critical Covid-19 cases, reports Le360.

It was in 2020 that the initiative to manufacture such respirators was taken by a collective composed of about fifteen companies operating in the fields of engineering, aeronautics, automotive and electronics. The idea is to prevent saturation of resuscitation and intensive care units. The Ministry of Health is accused of a certain "bureaucratic slowness" in the management of this file. As for the Ministry of Industry, it is accused of not having sufficiently experimented with this medical device.

It was not until July 2021 that a parliamentary mission looked into the issue and recommended to the Ministries of Health and Industry a coordination to clear the file of the 100% Moroccan artificial respirator. The consultations led on December 28, 2021 to the signing of the protocol agreement dedicated to the development of the national manufacture of medical devices and health products.