Morocco Receives New Shipment of Pfizer, Sinopharm Vaccines

Morocco’s Ministry of Health announced Saturday it received a large shipment of both the Pfizer and Sinopharm vaccines. Government officials received 950,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, said the announcement.

Denver – Morocco’s Ministry of Health announced Saturday it received a large shipment of both the Pfizer and Sinopharm vaccines.

Government officials received 950,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, said the announcement. Last week, Moroccan health authorities received 600,000 doses from Pfizer, as part of the government’s continued efforts to battle a COVID-19 resurgence in the country. The shipment was the first batch of Pfizer vaccine doses to arrive in Morocco.

Previously, Morocco utilized the Sinopharm, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca vaccines in its fight against COVID-19. With the addition of Pfizer to the country’s vaccine arsenal, there will be more opportunities for widespread vaccine distribution throughout the country. Reports indicate the government will reserve Pfizer for Moroccan youth aged 12-15, due to indications that the vaccine is safer for those categories of the population.

According to public health data, Morocco currently has over 12.8 million of its citizens fully vaccinated against COVID-19, approximately 35% of the country’s total population. This also means Morocco’s vaccination rate continues to be the highest in Africa. A widespread vaccination plan, coupled with stringent public health procedures, has helped to shield the country from the worse effects of the pandemic.

But Moroccan officials remain concerned about the continued spread of the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta and Lambda variants. Government-imposed curfews and travel bans to COVID hotspots continue to be in place within the country.

The central government also announced plans to begin producing a COVID-19 vaccine domestically, with projections that this could drastically increase supply and reduce the cost to vaccinate both the remainder of the Moroccan population and many across the African continent.

Morocco’s vaccine production initiative will be undertaken with the assistance of the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm. Sinopharm, which already produces a vaccine of its own, would assist Moroccan researchers with developing vaccine manufacturing capacities, according to a memorandum signed earlier this year.