The Ministry of Health and Social Protection has no current intention to turn the Coronavirus jab into a seasonal vaccine, said Dr. Mohammed Benazzouz, during an interactive broadcast live on the official Facebook page of the Ministry.
“There is no current intention to turn the vaccine [of coronavirus] into a seasonal vaccine, and there is no clear vision about this,” said Benazzouz.
Morocco started administering third booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccine starting from October 4, 2021.
Eligible people to the booster shots are those who had been fully vaccinated for at least 6 months, according to the ministry of health.
“Morocco’s decision to administer third doses is not a heresy, but rather a preventive measure that has been adopted in many countries,” said Benazzouz.
As many as 36 countries are now administering booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to Our World in Data.
The booster shots aim, essentially, to restore the vaccine’s effectiveness to the necessary levels, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The conversation about administering extra booster shots started amid the appearance of new variants of Covid-19, as the ongoing global pandemic still preventing the world from going back to normal.
While countries are still hesitating to administer the fourth shot, Turkey started in August administering fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on demand.
Since some countries require at least two doses of the Pzifer/BioNTech vaccine for entry, the fourth dose will be made available for those who have already received two doses of the Sinovac and one dose of the Pzifer/BioNTech jabs, the Turkish Health Ministry said on Aug. 16, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily news.
Azzedddin El Ibrahimi, a member of the national scientific committee, said yesterday, Wednesday, at the sidelines of a debate around the vaccine pass, that the country’s national vaccination campaign will most likely be limited to three doses of vaccine until December 2021.
“When we ask about the booster shots, we should frame the question chronologically. For this year I guess three shots are enough. However, for the next few years, I think we will keep getting booster shots against COVID-19 yearly as we do against the flu,” he said.
Dr. Benazzouz, the health ministry’s official, stressed that Moroccan health authorities are following up on the national epidemiological situation, hoping that the third shot will be sufficient to reach immunity.
“We hope that this dose [the third dose] will guarantee us strong immunity that we won’t need more doses,” Benazzouz said.
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