Morocco announces an agreement with Sinopharm to produce the Chinese pharmaceutical group’s vaccine against Covid-19 on its soil. A co-operation agreement was signed on Monday 5 July in the presence of King Mohammed VI. The country is one of the five African countries announcing the production of coronavirus vaccines. An important contribution for the continent, while the difficulties in delivering vaccines against Covid-19 complicate the campaigns in many countries. Only 1.2% of the African population is vaccinated against coronavirus.
According to the official Moroccan press agency, the Sinopharm vaccine in Morocco requires an investment of almost 421 million euros. The start date of production has not been specified, but it will start “in the short term with a capacity of 5 million doses per month, before gradually increasing” according to the agency.
The project aims to strengthen the country’s “health sovereignty” in the face of “external dependencies and political preparedness” while the continent is still struggling to get doses and is far behind in the global vaccination race.
Like Morocco, several countries in Africa want to develop the production of vaccines. Egypt has already been producing the Chinese Sinovac vaccine since the end of June. Algeria announces the production of Russian vaccine Sputnik V. From September. Senegal will also produce vaccines until 2022.
In South Africa, the first doses of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine will be removed from factories by the end of the year. The country will also host a “technology transfer center” for messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.
However, these initiatives are still limited compared to the needs of the continent, which imports 99% of all its vaccines.
► To read also:Covid-19 in Morocco: a massive and controlled vaccination campaign
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