Morocco’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign is witnessing a standstill, following the government’s easing of restrictive measures, and the overall improvement of the national sanitary situation.
As of this date, 24.373.815 Moroccan residents have received their first dose, while 22.460.518 received their second dose, and 1.586.991 have been administered a third.
Despite the encouraging cumulative numbers, progress has been slow as vaccination declined over 80% in recent days, especially among youth.
For the government to reach its 80% national vaccination rate goal, it needs to incentivize over 1.7 million Moroccans to get their initial vaccine dose and encourage over 2 million people to get their second dose.
In addition, younger Moroccans are a lot less eager to get vaccinated, “especially after the seemingly normal life pace that the country currently experiences.”
According to data from the national vaccination committee, the lowest vaccination rates in the country are in the 15 to 34 age group. For 15 to 19-year-olds, the rate is 53% for the second dose and 66% for the first. When it comes to 20 to 29-year-olds, the second dose rate is 64% and 75% for the second dose.
Logistically, Morocco can vaccinate up to 500,000 people a day, considering its facilities and supply. But people’s reluctance is the key issue, making for a weeks-long stagnation in vaccination.
Kaoutar, a 21-year-old student, told Hespress EN that although she was looking forward to getting vaccinated, her excitement ‘wore off once the government imposed the vaccine pass to access public spaces.”
“It just didn’t feel right, it was very coercive and I second-guessed everything,” she said.
Kaoutar, as is the case with many youth Hespress EN spoke to, was against the idea of compulsory vaccination, which since the start of the pandemic back in March 2020 the government denied, saying “vaccination is and will always be a choice.”
But the government’s October mandate, which complicated the lives of many unvaccinated individuals, Moroccans have denounced and protested the decision, despite many of them being fully vaccinated.
Another interesting hindering factor for the national vaccination campaign is within another age group.
Interestingly, statistics on the 30 to 39-year-olds category show this age group is reluctant to make a vaccination follow-up, as the coverage rate for the first dose is over 82%, while only 75% have received their second dose.
36-year-old housewife Karima told Hespress EN her reluctance to get her second dose is due to “serious concerns about vaccine side effects, deaths and long term impacts on the body,” which sparked her worry following her conspicuous consumption of an avalanche of anti-vaccine content on social media.
This prevalent case of misinformation has been widely observed during the protests against the vaccine pass mandate, which has ravaged the country since its issuing back in October.
More and more Moroccans are receiving fallacious vaccines and COVID-19 misinformation through Facebook and Whatsapp, which is doing a lot of damage to the government’s two-year-long effort to counter the pandemic.
Health authorities have remained unresponsive, and continue to lag in their communication efforts with citizens, resorting to administrative measures to encourage the population to participate in the vaccination campaign.
Almost a month after issuing the vaccine pass mandate, the Moroccan government announced the lifting of the night curfew and of national travel, while strengthening international arrivals control, against the backdrop of a raging 5th COVID-19 wave in neighboring Europe.
The situation, therefore, remains worrying, as the possibility of a significant fourth wave looms over Morocco.
Dr. Said Afif, a member of the Scientific Committee on vaccination, told Hespress EN that the committee has “serious concerns for this December, a month in which other respiratory viruses will be added to COVID-19, with all that this entails in terms of risk.”
Afif said that “Spain and Portugal have saved their summer season thanks to vaccination. England has managed to reduce the impact of the current wave, once again, through a successful vaccination campaign. With 40,000 to 50,000 daily cases, the country has only recorded 800 deaths per week.”
Although 800 weekly deaths are extremely worrying, it pales in comparison to the 2,000 daily deaths recorded in previous waves that plagued the European country.
In contrast, Morocco’s health infrastructure allows for less leeway, Afifi explained, saying “if we only have 6,000 cases in intensive care, we will be overwhelmed, as Morocco only disposes of 5,500 reanimation beds.”
The scientific committee member does not exclude the possibility of another quarantine, and the return of “stricter, more binding health restrictions, in the event of continued resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine.”
“2,000 daily deaths recorded in previous waves that plagued the [UK]”
It never came close to 2,000. The seven-day rolling average of deaths peaked in January 2021 at 1,248. The level of new daily cases reported is approximately the same now as back in January 2021 but average daily deaths are at under 150 due primarily to vaccination.