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Join on Telegram Rabat – Following mounting concerns regarding the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine safety, Morocco’s Ministry of Health issued a statement to announce a decision that it will maintain its use in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
The health ministry announced the news following a meeting of the National Scientific Committee held on Monday.
The statement, which Morocco World News received a copy of, recalled that a number of Western countries suspended the use of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine following the emergence of the risk of blood clots in a few patients.
The ministry said that 30 cases of thrombosis have been reported in Europe out of 5,000,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
In the UK, 35 cases have been reported out of 9,700,000 doses of vaccine.
“The figures are well below the annual incidence of the disease which is 1 case per 1,000 in Europe and North American, where more than 200,000 new cases of thromboembolic events occur each year in the United States,” the scientific committee explained.
The ad hoc committee, working under the Ministry of Health, explained that Morocco administered 5,992,789 doses of vaccines, including 4,628,695 from Oxford/ AstraZeneca, and 1,364,088 from Sinopharm as of March 15.
To date, the national pharmacovigilance center received notices of four cases of thromboembolic events.
After “in depth” analysis and tests of the reported cases, the ministry found that the thromboembolic patient was not retained in the first case.
For two cases, the link between the vaccine and the thromboembolic event has not “been established.”
One case of a thromboembolic event is under investigation, the ministry explained.
Therefore, the Ministry of Health decided to maintain the use of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine in accordance with the recommendation of the World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency, and according to relevant data.
The ministry reassured citizens that the vaccines used in the Moroccan vaccination campaign will continue to be monitored.
Several countries suspended the use of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine, including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
Amid concerns regarding vaccine safety, the UK Prime Minister conveyed his country’s confidence in the safety of the vaccine
“We have one of the toughest and most experienced regulators in the world,” Johnson said.
He added that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency sees “no reason at all to discontinue the vaccination program.”
