Rabat -Mar 12, 2021 – Morocco’s Health Ministry has ordered one million doses of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
Morocco’s Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb confirmed the news in a statement to the Spanish news agency EFE.
COVID-19: Morocco Orders 1 Million Doses of Sputnik V Vaccine
The Spanish news outlet reported on Thursday that Ait Taleb said that Morocco is set to receive the first batch of the Russian vaccine in March and another in April.
The Moroccan minister, however, said that the scheduled date will depend on “Russian commitments to other countries.”
Reuters reported this week that Morocco approved both US Johnson & Johnson and the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines.
Morocco seeks to secure more vaccine shipments to ensure the continuity of its vaccination campaign.
On March 7, Morocco received 500,000 Sinopharm vaccines.
The batch is the third of its kind from Sinopharm. The country has received a total of 1.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccine.
Morocco also received 7 million doses from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
To date, Morocco has received 8.5 million doses in total.
Samir Machour, a senior vice-president at Samsung Biologics, said in February that Morocco is set to have at least 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Morocco earned international applause for positioning itself among the first 10 countries to speed up the vaccination process.
To date, Morocco vaccinated 4,130,606 people.
People who received the second dose of the vaccine have reached 9,72,079.
Morocco seeks to vaccinate 33 million (80%) of the population.
The country also reports fewer COVID-19 cases than the first months after the outbreak of the pandemic.
Since March, Morocco confirmed 487,750 cases, including 474,257 recoveries, and 8,712 deaths.
