Morocco Suspends First Covid Vaccine Doses Amid Supply Shortage

Contrary to the second dose of the Covid vaccine which maintains its pace in the wake of the first injections, the administration of the first dose is rather slowing down due to delivery delays, informs Challenge, specifying that barely an average of 5,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine daily this past week across the country. As of Saturday, March 27 at 6 p.m., the country has almost exhausted its entire stock of first doses, with more than seven and a half million (7,634,475) doses administered, forcing the Ministry of Health to make this decision.

And yet, the country is not out of the woods, since beyond April 10, 2021, Morocco will no longer have any vaccine. Hence the turmoil at the Ministry of Health for a quick supply, in order to avoid the interruption of the national vaccination campaign. Since India, to meet its growing domestic demand, has suspended its delivery of new doses of AstraZeneca until next May, the ministry has turned to China to get the Sinopharm vaccine, which, it should be remembered, had previously delivered 1.5 million doses. A new delivery of 2 million doses is planned, bringing the total doses of Sinopharm received by the Kingdom to 3.5 million.

With this new delivery, the kingdom will be able to maintain its vaccination regime in the coming weeks, which has earned it to top the global top 10 of the vaccinated population compared to the number of inhabitants, behind only Hungary in the European Union, whose large countries rank far behind Morocco, with a vaccination rate barely exceeding 9%.

In addition to China, according to Health Minister Khalid Aït Taleb, Morocco plans to receive the first shipments of its order of one million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in April. And, multiplying its sources of supply, Morocco has already approved and ordered the American Johnson & Johnson vaccine, whose first delivery will not be effective until January 2022.