Rabat – The US Embassy in Morocco announced on Friday that USAID would donate an additional $2.5 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF to bolster Morocco’s vaccination campaign.
The funding aims to “strengthen the capacity of vaccine service delivery points, provide crucial cold chain and logistics support, and ensure communities receive accurate vaccine information,” according to the embassy’s official Twitter statement.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>USAID is providing an additional $2.5 million to WHO and UNICEF to partner with the Government of Morocco to strengthen the capacity of vaccine service delivery points, provide crucial cold chain and logistics support, and ensure communities receive accurate vaccine information. <a href=”https://t.co/OMQnnFJDcF”>pic.twitter.com/OMQnnFJDcF</a></p>— U.S. Embassy Morocco (@USEmbMorocco) <a href=”https://twitter.com/USEmbMorocco/status/1423648129098919941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 6, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
The US has been a large proponent of accelerating Morocco’s vaccination campaign to combat the spread of COVID-19. In late July 2021, the US donated 300,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines to Morocco. In addition, the US facilitated the building of a $1.5 million field hospital in Morocco.
“Morocco has done an exceptional job managing a hugely successful vaccination campaign, under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI,” said US Charge d’Affaires David Greene following the announcement of the July vaccine shipment.
Read also: US Donates Over 300,000 Johnson & Johnson Vaccines to Morocco
Despite Morocco’s success in fully-vaccinating approximately 29.4% of its population, the kingdom has recorded over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases for three consecutive days in a row, with death tolls rising alarmingly to over 50 deaths per day.
Morocco is combating the most recent wave of the virus by extending its night curfew to 9 p.m to 5 a.m and restricting inter-city travel without a vaccination certificate or a special permission. Additionally, the government has continued to call on the general public to respect the health-related preventive measures such as wearing a mask and social distancing.
The government launched a new campaign in Arabic that reads “COVID-19 is still a threat!” The message is plastered across all government media platforms and websites.
