Agadir – Morocco’s Ministry of Health announced the authorization for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the fight against COVID-19.
Morocco’s COVID-19 advisory committee met on December 31, in Rabat to discuss the authorization for the AstraZeneca vaccine. The committee discussed international data, the vaccine’s compliance with standards of manufacturing, safety, and reviewed the results of preclinical and clinical trials.
The vaccine is authorized for emergency use for a period of 12 months, according to the Ministry of Health.
A major advantage of the AstraZeneca vaccine over the American-German Pfizer or American Moderna vaccine is the storage conditions. While the competitors must be kept in temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius and -70 degrees Celsius respectively, AstraZeneca requires between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
In December Morocco purchased 65 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccination campaign will use both AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines, and the health authorities aim to vaccinate 25 million people.
Pascal Soriot, the CEO of the AstraZeneca group, said that they “believe for now that the vaccine should remain effective” against the latest strain of COVID-19.
Developed by the Swedish-British pharmaceutical group, the AstraZeneca vaccine has also recently been authorized for use by Argentina, India, Mexico, and the UK.
Earlier today, Morocco’s health authorities announced a total of 447,081 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, of which 20,719 are active cases.
