The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khalid Ait Taleb, said on Tuesday in Rabat, that Morocco was short of less than five million people vaccinated to achieve the expected herd immunity of 80 percent of the population.
Speaking in Parliament, the minister called for more efforts to strengthen the confidence of citizens in the effectiveness and safety of the vaccination operation, and to push them to take the necessary doses to protect themselves against the risks of death and contamination to the virus.
To consolidate this positive development, he said, the public authorities have adopted the “vaccine pass” from October 21, as an official and exclusive document allowing its holder to move between the different regions and provinces of the Kingdom, by its own means or public transport, to travel abroad, access to public places and spaces, and repeal all previous travel permits issued by local authorities.
On the considerations that led to the adoption of this approach by the government, he said that Morocco is not immune to a possible epidemiological relapse, especially in the wake of the recent significant and dangerous development of this pandemic in many countries, with which Morocco has been forced to suspend air flights.
He also noted that the use of the “vaccine pass” during this period of the year aims to encourage reluctant people to get vaccinated, following the recent delay in the influx to the vaccine centers, to guard against epidemiological outbreaks that could emerge suddenly, and to better prepare for the winter season, during which the new viruses spread easily.
Ait Taleb reported a new strategy to extend the vaccination campaign to other categories, including irregular migrants, neglected children over 12 years, school dropouts, and people with special needs, who have not been vaccinated for medical reasons.
HA/fss/abj/APA