India to Export COVID-19 Vaccines to Morocco

Rabat – India is set to deliver a significant quantity of COVID-19 vaccines to several countries, including Morocco.

Reuters quoted India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who announced that the Indian government will export COVID-19 vaccine doses to Morocco and Brazil, starting Friday.

India will export the vaccines developed by UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

“In keeping with this vision, we have responded positively to requests for supply of Indian manufactured vaccines from countries across the globe, starting with our neighbours,” said the Indian minister.

He said that the supply of commercially contracted quantities will commence from Friday, “starting with Brazil and Morocco, followed by South Africa and Saudi Arabia.”

The vaccines, however, are manufactured in India’s Serum Institute, considered one of the largest producers of vaccines across the world.

Frustration and concerns mounted among Moroccans after vaccination campaign delay.

Morocco’s government announced in November of last year that it had secured 65 million doses of the vaccine against COVID-19, vowing to start the vaccination campaign by early December 2020. Many weeks later, however, whenever government officials received questions regarding the delay, senior executives would maintain that the country has not yet received any of the doses the government has ordered.

Morocco’s Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani said this week that Moroccan health authorities are still uncertain about when they will receive COVID-19 vaccines.

“At the international level, everyone is asking for vaccines and orders have reached more than one billion doses. Manufacturers do not have the ability to keep up with all the orders at once,” he argued.

In recent days, Morocco confirmed fewer numbers of COVID-19 cases than in mid-2020.