Morocco Set to Receive 4 Million AstraZeneca Vaccines, Accelerating National Immunization Plan

Of the 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine ordered, Morocco has already received 6 million and should receive 4 million doses before the end of this week, reports the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia. Authorized sources indicate that the rest of the order, i.e. 10 million doses, will be delivered before the end of March, in three stages.

An additional 5 million doses will be received towards the end of March or early April. Thus, the British laboratory will have honored its commitments to Morocco, unlike the Chinese Sinopharm Wuhan which did not keep its promise to deliver 40 million doses, due to lack of marketing authorization.

Nevertheless, the public authorities have taken other measures to allow Morocco to be able to receive, this week, the 700,000 doses whose delivery was delayed for logistical reasons. The Minister of Health stresses that if the delivery schedule is respected, the vaccination operation will be extended to people aged 50 and over.

Since the launch of the free vaccination campaign by King Mohammed VI on Thursday, January 28, 2021, the vaccination centers in all the provinces and regions of the Kingdom have so far managed to vaccinate 1.4 million people. During a recent visit to these centers, the Minister of Health declared that "Morocco could achieve collective immunity and, consequently, put an end to the negative consequences of the virus so that the population can resume a normal life".