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Morocco's national technical and scientific advisory committee on vaccination has given the green light to the Johnson & Johnson and Sputnik V vaccines. The committee concluded that said vaccines show the same «efficacy and safety» and would «require the same logistics» as the ones currently in use in the Kingdom, adding that Morocco «can order» them, Moulay Said Afif, president of the Moroccan Society of Medical Sciences (SMSM) and member of the national technical committee for vaccination said.
The committee thus opted for vaccines from American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson and the Russian federal research center Galimeya, Sputnik V. «The committee considered that these two vaccines are effective, safe and can be stored at varying temperatures between 2 and 8 ° C», continues our interlocutor, who specifies that it is a «purely scientific opinion». «The authorizations must be granted by the Directorate of Medicines and Pharmacy», under the Ministry of Health, he said.
For Moulay Said Afif, if the Kingdom's partners among the laboratories «respect their commitments, things will go as planned». The expert recalls that vulnerable populations in Morocco «have already been targeted and have received either the first or the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19», while the epidemiological situation in the country «has improved».
The member of the national technical committee for vaccination also underlines that thanks to the preventive measures put in place by Morocco, «only 28 strains of the Covid-19 variants have been detected so far». «Morocco has not detected any case of the South African or Brazilian variant, which are more dangerous», he added.
The vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, which only requires the administration of a single dose, has been approved in the United States by the Food and Drug administration (FDA).
More than 80% effective against severe forms of the virus, it is however less effective against symptomatic forms (66%). Unlike other vaccines, it is only given as a single dose. For its part, Sputnik V is approved in several countries, while its effectiveness is estimated at 91.6%.
