Morocco began this morning, January 29, vaccinating health workers, security services, and local authorities across the country against COVID-19.
King Mohammed VI officially launched the vaccination campaign yesterday when he received the first vaccine injection in the country.
Read also: King Mohammed VI Receives Morocco’s 1st Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine
Today, thousands of health workers, security services, and local authorities are receiving their first injections in several vaccination centers across Morocco.
However, vaccinations only commenced in a select group of medical centers, a doctor working at a public hospital in Casablanca told Morocco World News.
“There are some centers that won’t begin vaccinations until next week,” he said.
The doctor was unaware of the reason why some vaccination centers began the campaign earlier than others, but he guessed that it has to do with the current limited stock of COVID-19 vaccines in Morocco.
Health authorities currently have two and a half million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including two million doses manufactured by AstraZeneca in India and 500,000 from the Chinese Sinopharm company.
Read also: Morocco Receives Half a Million Doses of Chinese Sinopharm Vaccine
In total, Morocco is set to receive 66 million doses of vaccines to cover 33 million people. The population that will benefit from vaccines will reach more than 80% of the total Moroccan population, allowing Morocco to develop herd immunity.
The national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 will initially cover health workers aged 40 and over. It will also benefit security services, local authorities, and teaching staff aged 45 and over, as well as men and women aged 75 and more.
Health authorities will expand the categories of people to benefit from the vaccines as more shipments arrive in the future.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health launched an online platform, www.liqahcorona.ma, for Moroccan citizens and residents to register for the campaign.
People wishing to receive vaccines only need to input their national identification number to instantly receive information about where and when they can get injections. They can also send their identification number via an SMS message to 1717.
Initially announced in November, the national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 has been under preparation for several months. In recent weeks, health authorities only awaited the arrival of the first vaccines’ shipments to launch the campaign.
The Ministry of Health hopes to finish the campaign in 12 weeks. However, with the lack of information on the supply of vaccines, it remains to be seen whether the campaign will go according to schedule.
