Rabat – The Moroccan government has officially announced the launch of the campaign to administer the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to Moroccan residents and citizens.
The campaign is set to start this Monday, October 4, and aims to strengthen immunity against the virus.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health provided details on the administration of the 3rd dose in Morocco, called a “booster shot.”
The campaign will start with people who have been fully vaccinated for at least 6 months.
The beneficiaries will receive a text from the 1717 number, confirming they are eligible for the third dose.
The administration of the third dose will be carried out in vaccination centers across the country, with no address or appointment restrictions.
Some in the medical community have recommended that the third dose be administered first to frontliners and then to the elderly or those with comorbidities, as was the case during the early days of the vaccination campaign.
For this booster shot, the type of vaccine (Pfizer, Sinopharm…) will be independent of the type received in the first two doses (or the single dose in the case of Janssen), as many health sector professionals have already approved mixing vaccines.
Dr. Said Afif, a pediatrician and member of the national scientific committee, had confirmed this to Morocco World News back in early september.
Booster shots were first introduced in Israel and Hungary this summer, but now many of the largest nations in Europe, as well as the US, have indicated that they will be offering the shots in the fall or, in some cases, have already begun administering them.
Morocco’s national vaccination campaign has been a resounding success so far, with the national immunization coverage rate reported to stand at 45% as of September 10.
The calculation of these figures is based on the overall population of Morocco, estimated at 36.3 million people.
With the additional success of the vaccination campaign to teenagers under 12 years, which was met with great excitement ahead of the 2021-2022 school year, Morocco is well on its way to fully vaccinate the vast majority of its residents and finally emerge from the COVID fog.
