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Expected to start by the end of 2020, the national vaccination campaign against the new coronavirus in Morocco will be carried in four main phases. On Friday, the Health Ministry announced that the long-awaited campaign will target, in the first place, frontline workers and people most likely to develop complications from Covid-19.
Health workers aged 40 and over, public authorities and the Royal Armed Forces as well as teachers aged 45 and over, and people aged 75 and over (amounting to 1 million individuals according to Morocco’s High Planning Agency) will be the first to be given the shots. The first phase will prioritize regions with the highest infection rates.
Speaking to Yabiladi on Monday, the President of the Moroccan Society of Medical Sciences (SMSM) Dr. Moulay Said Afif, who is also a member of the Vaccination Technical Committee, said that «old people and those suffering from chronic pathologies will be vaccinated based on data compiled by hospitals on the cases most affected by mortality and severe forms of Covid».
Vaccine doses for priority populations
In numbers, teachers in Morocco represent nearly 248,000 people, according to the 2018-2019 data compiled by the national education ministry. This figure excludes other workers, operating in school administrations.
The last accessible edition of the report «Sante en Chiffres» on the website of the Ministry of Health indicates that the Kingdom has 90,298 people working in the medical and paramedical sector, public and private sectors included. The list includes practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, health technicians, midwives as well as administrative and maintenance staff.
Estimates indicate, moreover, that the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) amount to a total of 309,000 people, including the Royal Army (250,000) of the Royal Air Forces (16,000), the Royal Navy (12,000), the Royal Gendarmerie (25,000) and the Royal Guard (6,000).
These groups will be targeted during the first phase of the vaccination campaign, taking into consideration the age factor (40+ for health workers and 45+ for others).
A vaccine campaign finally launched
For the record, a first batch of 2 million doses of the vaccine, developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by AstraZeneca and the Oxford University, was sent to Morocco last week.
Morocco will receive the first batch of the Sinopharm vaccine on Wednesday. Hospitals are ready for the launch of the vaccination campaign. In Casablanca, the city most affected by the pandemic, 1,000 people per day are expected to get vaccine shots, under the supervision of «a team of 4 to 5 doctors» as previously stated by Dr. Mounir Lahlou speaking to Yabiladi.
Through this operation, the ministry's objective is to immunize between 60 and 80% of the population, so as to achieve herd immunity and curb the spread of the pandemic.
Citizens as well as foreigners residing in Morocco, belonging to the targeted groups, can obtain the date of the vaccine and the vaccination center by registering through the electronic portal www.liqahcorona.ma or by sending an SMS to toll-free number 17, starting from Sunday January 24, 2021.
