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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated his country’s commitment on Thursday to provide COVID-19 vaccines to African countries as soon as they are available for use.
“When the development of the vaccines is complete and available for use, China will actively consider providing them to African countries in need to help ensure an early victory against the virus,” Yi said.
This was stated by the top Chinese diplomat during a ceremony in Beijing to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The ceremony was attended by several African ambassadors to China.
Yi’s statement directly concerns Morocco as several agreements link the North African country with Chinese laboratories.
In August, Morocco signed two cooperation agreements with China National Biotec Group Company Limited (CNBG) to participate in clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine.
The agreements provide a legal framework for cooperation in phase III clinical trials of a Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.
“We have decided to conduct these multicentric clinical trials of the vaccine together, for an unprecedented first time in the history of Morocco,” announced Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita.
The agreements will also allow Morocco to locally produce doses of the vaccine once it becomes available for use.
Read also: Morocco, Chinese CNBG sign 2 agreements on COVID-19 vaccine trials
Last week, the Moroccan Ministry of Health announced that it will launch a national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 “in the coming weeks”. The announcement may have been an indication that Sinopharm’s vaccine will be available soon.
On Thursday, government chief Saad Eddine El Othmani said Morocco has chosen a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine for its next vaccination campaign. However, it did not disclose the origin of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, indicators such as the Moroccan-Chinese agreements and Sinopharm’s recent announcement that clinical trial results of its vaccine are “better than expected” suggest that Morocco will use a Chinese vaccine in its campaign.
Read also: El Othmani: Morocco has chosen the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine
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