Coronavirus: Moroccan PM blames global market for COVID-19 vaccine delay
January 20, 2021, 11:00 am

Coronavirus: Moroccan PM blames global market for COVID-19 vaccine delay

People wearing walk past a bivouac where clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines are conducted, in Rabat, Morocco, Dec. 7, 2020. (AP/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Morocco’s prime minister on Tuesday defended his government’s COVID-19 vaccine policy after weeks of false hopes it could quickly roll out a national program, saying supplies were going to rich countries and those that produced the vaccine.

Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Saad Dine El Otmani said that despite ordering 65 million doses of vaccine from Britain’s AstraZeneca and China’s Sinopharm, Morocco had so far received no supplies.

“Most countries are complaining of this scarcity,” he said, adding that rich countries were paying up to five times more money to get prior access and that it was natural that countries producing the vaccine used them at home before exporting.

Moroccan officials had been promising to start rolling out their planned free vaccination campaign from mid-December, targeting the 25 million people aged over 18.

On Monday, the World Health Organization warned that the globe faced a “catastrophic moral failure” to share vaccines, urging countries and manufacturers to spread doses more fairly.

No African country has yet been able to start a mass vaccination program. However, Morocco, like some other African states, took part in clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine.

Morocco has recorded nearly half a million coronavirus infections and almost 8,000 deaths, while the International Monetary Fund has projected the economy to have contracted by 7.2 percent last year.

On Monday Morocco detected its first confirmed case of the more contagious British coronavirus variant and banned flights to several countries.

It has also extended a night curfew on Tuesday for two more weeks.

source: Reuters

Image source: AP

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
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For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”