Morocco begins COVID-19 vaccine rollout

Morocco has started its coronavirus vaccine rollout and on Monday began distributing them across the country.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was received last Friday from India.

According to MAP, the country's news agency, the North African country will begin its vaccination campaign this week.

"We have mobilised a lot of human resources, comprising doctors, pharmacists, nurses, technicians and civil servants," said Mehdi El Mahjoub, Director of Procurement at the Moroccan Health Ministry.

"With the help of the National Agency for Refrigeration, we managed to have a storing capacity of more than 50,000 cubic meters so that we could store the vaccine under safe conditions."

Authorities said Morocco will also receive the Sinopharm vaccine from China this week.

The first to receive the vaccine will be health workers, teachers, security forces and those aged over 75, as well as those living in areas with high COVID-19 rates.

Morocco has registered 466,626 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 8,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.