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Rabat – Morocco has been praised for its effective COVID management and broadly successful vaccination campaign, but this success story cost the country’s economy a considerable amount of money.
As of September 2021, Morocco has spent MAD 6.79 billion ($671 million) for the purchase of anti-COVID-19 vaccines to speed up its vaccination campaign and to reach 80% of national immunity by the end of this year.
The money was taken from the Special Fund for the Management of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the government.
The first vaccines to reach Morocco were Sinopharm and AstraZeneca. The country later purchased the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and recently received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Morocco has administered at least 45 million doses so far for both first and second shots. The country appears to be currently focusing on vaccinating younger people and delivering the “booster shot” for those vaccinated for more than six months.
Nationwide, there are some 420-vaccination centers available in rural and urban areas.
At a time when worldwide stockpiles were very limited, especially in the African continent, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Morocco was extremely early in ordering vaccines, which resulted in a speedy start and a very high vaccination rate.
According to Our World in Data, Morocco boasts Africa’s best COVID vaccination rate and has administered more vaccine doses per person than the global average.
Moroccan authorities have made vaccination a free operation to achieve herd immunity and allow as many Moroccans as possible to be vaccinated.
The funds allocated to the campaign were drawn from the Special Fund created in March 2020 for the management of the pandemic and the mobilization of the Moroccan textile industry to produce millions of surgical masks per day.
Donations from the private sector, ordinary Moroccans, and the state budget amounted to MAD 34 billion ($3.7 billion), with MAD 29 billion ($3.2 billion) from the total sum spent in 2020 when Morocco faced a resurgence in infection cases.
Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the health sector cost MAD 3,2 billion ($352 million). The money was invested to purchase hospital equipment, medicines, and pharmaceutical products.
Additionally, part of the Special Fund has been devoted to supporting the production of non-woven masks for non-medical use, as well as the management of severe COVID-19 cases that require special care such as oxygen and resuscitation beds.
