Marruecos cumple ampliamente con los objetivos de la OMS sobre la vacunación en África

The United Nations (UN) has released a report saying that the situation for vaccination against the coronavirus in Africa is very low. The WHO - World Health Organisation - at the time, imposed specific guidelines on the countries of the continent, where they had to exceed a minimum number of their population inoculated. The UN and WHO target was to have at least 10% of citizens vaccinated by the end of last September and 40% by the end of 2021. The document notes that most African nations have missed the vaccination targets set, but five of them are spared and meet the global organisations' goals.

Morocco, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tunisia are the only African territories that have managed to vaccinate more than 10 % of their citizens. The other countries are at such low levels that some do not even reach 5% of their entire population with the full vaccine guidelines. 

Today, the Alawi kingdom is one of the African countries with the best vaccination campaigns. Currently, 80 % of the population is vaccinated, with almost 23 million people having received both doses, and just over 24 million having received only the first jab. The figures are promising, given that the Kingdom's full citizenship is 36 million people. 

In addition, the Moroccan government has already started the booster dose campaign with the third inoculation. The latest figures show that more than 3 million people have already received this third jab since the operation began three months ago.

The daily newspaper Hespress published a report stating that a source from Morocco's Scientific Committee for Vaccination against COVID-19 claims that the nation only needs to fully vaccinate four million more inhabitants with the three doses, and, with this, a collective immunity would be achieved. Despite the good campaign, the Health Ministrystresses that the process is at a standstill.

The Ministry of Health, for its part, is recording worrying data due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The current rate is 158.38 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and eight people have died in the last day. Khalid Ait Taleb, Moroccan Minister of Health, reported that most of the people who are dying, and especially those in intensive care units, are citizens who did not want to be vaccinated. It is also noted that the newly infected have the new strain in their system and account for two thirds of the infections. The minister took the opportunity to encourage the unvaccinated population to go to authorised centres in order to further reduce the risk of death and the collapse of the health system.

The WHO says this trend is low, with almost no vaccinations taking place in Africa. According to the data revealed, only 102 million people living on the continent are fully vaccinated, or 7.5 % of the total population. The organisation warns that 80% of people in Africa do not even have the first dose of the vaccine, so in many cases they are at a significant and high risk of falling ill.

On the other hand, the situation poses a problem, as WHO reports point out that the risk of having so many people unvaccinated could create large mutations of the virus that would spread rapidly around the world and cause large waves of infection, such as the last one of the Omicron variant that originated in South Africa. The danger is critical, and the data state that if 70% of the African population is not vaccinated by August 2024, the situation could become irreversible. Notably, the WHO reported an 83% increase in new cases of COVID-19 in Africa in early December, all confirmed with Delta and Omicron variants