COVID-19: Morocco Receives 2 Million Sinopharm Doses

Rabat – Morocco received a shipment of 2 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on Tuesday, July 13.

The shipment arrived at the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca via Royal Air Maroc Dreamliner at approximately 11 a.m. local time on Tuesday, according to local media. Reportedly, the shipment was immediately transferred to Casablanca’s Autonomous Refrigeration Authority.

The batch of 2 million Sinopharm doses was the latest shipment of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine to arrive from Beijing, following a shipment of 1 million doses that arrived on July 6. Morocco has received at least 12.5 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine so far.

With 20,122,946 doses of the vaccine administered as of July 13, Sinopharm accounts for the majority of Morocco’s administered COVID-19 vaccines. So far the Moroccan health authorities have administered 10,713,551 first doses, and 9,409,395 second doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Morocco has also received over 7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, in addition to over 900,000 doses through the international COVID-19 vaccine relief program, COVAX.

Recently Sinopharm made Moroccan news headlines on July 5, when the CEO of Sinopharm, Liu Jingzhen, expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the joint Chinese-Moroccan project to develop a Sinopharm vaccine manufacturing plant in the North African country.

The signing ceremony, attended by the Sinopharm CEO virtually and chaired by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, took place in the Royal Palace of Fez.

“This large-scale project will make it possible to strengthen the health resilience of the peoples of the kingdom and of Africa,” Jingzhen said, adding that the project will also bring the opportunity to further consolidate the Sino-Moroccan relationship.

Local Moroccan media reports that an additional batch of 650,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, distributed through the COVAX program, are bound to arrive in Morocco in the coming week.