The Moroccan Ministry of Health announced Wednesday that more than four million people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, as part of a vaccination campaign that the Kingdom launched at the end of January.

The Moroccan vaccination campaign targets all persons over the age of 18 years, or about 25 million people, with the aim of "a gradual return to normal life."

In their vaccination campaign, the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Chinese Sinopharm are used. However, according to local media, the Kingdom is seeking to provide additional vaccines, such as the Russian Sputnik-V and the American Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Official tolls show that Morocco has recorded 486,833 COVID-19 cases since the first case was detected in the country in March 2020, inc;uding 8,695 coronavirus-related deaths.

The health crisis had catastrophic repercussions on the country's economy, and the unemployment rate rose to 11.9 percent in 2020, compared to 9.2 percent in 2019, after successive drought seasons exacerbated the repercussions of the pandemic. 

On Feb. 3, the Moroccan High Commission for Planning announced that the Moroccan economy lost over 430,000 jobs, with unemployment affecting about 1.5 million Moroccans due to the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the drought which affected the agricultural sector.

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