Morocco Maintains “Sinopharm” Vaccine for Adults Over 60 

On Monday February 8th, the Ministry of Health stated that the available data allow maintaining the use of the “Sinopharm” vaccine for the age group of 60 years and over, as was recommended in the national strategy for vaccination against “Covid-19”.

In a communiqué presenting the opinion of the scientific and technical committee in charge of developing the national strategy for vaccination against “SARS-Cov-2”, the ministry stated that the anti COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese company obtained a license for use, without the age being set at 60 years old by many countries, including Morocco.

The ministry also added that the comprehensive immunity to the “Sinopharm” vaccine during the first and second phases of clinical trials is “excellent, both for the Beijing Sinopharm vaccine, which included people aged 60 years and over, or for the Wuhan vaccine, with a seroconversion rate ranging between 97 and
100 % after receiving two doses.”

According to the ministry, clinical trials of the third phase of the “Sinopharm” vaccine showed a comprehensive efficacy of 86 percent and a good safety record.

The third phase of clinical trials of “Sinopharm Wuhan” vaccine, a part of which was conducted in Morocco, included people aged 60 years and over. The ministry confirmed that “preliminary results revealed good tolerance among this category of population.”

As for the pharmacovigilance data of the National Immunization Campaign for people aged 60 years and over, no side effects were registered in comparison to the rest of the vaccinated population.