Morocco has chosen a mass vaccination campaign aimed at 80% of the population. He is fast: in less than three months, more than 12% of Moroccans have been vaccinated. His strategy? Expectation and control. Morocco started the vaccine race in the summer of 2020, with the Chinese, and has since multiplied sources of supply and so far avoided shortages of doses.
as reported from Tangier, MaudNinauve
In awareness campaigns, the slogan is almost patriotic: “against coronavirus I protect myself, I protect my country.” Moroccans are confident, vaccinated under control. In the country no controversy, including about the origin of the vaccines.
On the first day of vaccination in Tangier, a patient wonders at the time of injection: “What is Sinopharm or Astrazeneca? – AstraZeneca”. The nurse answered the question, because in principle her patient, a doctor, was not worried. “With the pandemic, we were really impatient, sincere without any worries”
However, Morocco has chosen the variety. 2020 signs with Chinese Sinopharm and Swedish-British AstraZeneca, it is now targeting the Russian vaccine Sputnik and the American Johnson & Johnson.
To avoid the shortage, Morocco has also subscribed to the global Covax program, reserved for the less fortunate countries, and has just received 300,000 doses. For Professor Jaffaar Heikel, an epidemiologist and public health expert, various vaccines are also an asset.
“The advantage of this is not only to see the effectiveness of the different vaccines but also their effectiveness on certain populations, certain categories, the youngest the oldest. And this strategy makes it possible to see in the future which vaccine is best suited for a target population. So that is a good strategy that Morocco has adopted. ”
And not a single dose escapes state control. Only public health centers are licensed to vaccinate. In Morocco, the state of emergency has still not been lifted.
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