Rabat- Morocco’s Health Ministry announced on Wednesday the shortening of COVID-19 vaccine booster interval to four months instead of six months, amid concern about the spread of the Omicron variant.
The Health Ministry said in a press release that those who received “the single shot of the Johnson& Johnson vaccine and exceeded 4 months can also receive the booster shot.”
“Eligible people will begin receiving text messages from the number 1717, reminding them to receive the third booster shot,” added the press release.
Initially, Morocco decided that people should be eligible for the booster jab six months after receiving their second dose of the vaccine.
Read Also: 5 Things You Should Know Before Taking Third Covid Vaccine Dose
In its latest statement, the Ministry urged citizens to continue complying with COVID measures to avoid any deterioration of the country’s epidemiological situation; including proper mask wearing, disinfection, and social distancing.
Morocco recorded 1504 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. This brought to 959,098 the country’s total case count since the virus was first detected in March of last year.
The country has also reported 5 COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours.
After months of improvement, health officials confirmed this week that Morocco is witnessing a third wave of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
Current indicators suggest Morocco’s third wave of COVID started nearly two weeks ago, between December13-19. “The current wave will probably be faster and shorter than the Delta wave,” said Mouad Mrabet, the coordinator of the Moroccan National Center for Public Health Emergency Operations at the Ministry of Health.
Around 2,390,120 people have received the COVID-19 booster doses in Morocco as of December 20, according to data from Morocco’s Health Ministry.
People who are fully vaccinated with the first and second dose reached 22,843,009, according to the data.
Meanwhile, 24,501,405 people received only the first dose.
