Morocco Receives 4 mln Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine from India

An elderly Moroccan woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation center in the city of Sale on January 29, 2021. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
An elderly Moroccan woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation center in the city of Sale on January 29, 2021. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
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Morocco Receives 4 mln Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine from India

An elderly Moroccan woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation center in the city of Sale on January 29, 2021. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
An elderly Moroccan woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation center in the city of Sale on January 29, 2021. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)

Morocco received a second batch of 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Thursday.

The shipment of vaccines, manufactured by India's Serum Institute, arrived on a Royal Air Maroc flight in Casablanca.

“This new batch would enable a steady continuation of Morocco’s national vaccination campaign,” said Said Afif, a member of the health ministry’s scientific committee.

The latest batch of AstraZeneca vaccines follows 2 million doses received last month and 500,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm.

By Wednesday Morocco had vaccinated 746,116 people and reported 476,689 coronavirus infections and 8,436 deaths.

The country has ordered enough vaccines for 33 million people and aims to inoculate 80% of the population.



Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Visits Military Positions in the Country's South

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
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Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Visits Military Positions in the Country's South

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has begun a tour of military positions in the country’s south, almost a month after a ceasefire deal that ended the war between Israel and the Hezbollah group that battered the country.
Najib Mikati on Monday was on his first visit to the southern frontlines, where Lebanese soldiers under the US-brokered deal are expected to gradually deploy, with Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops both expected to withdraw by the end of next month, The Associated Press said.
Mikati’s tour comes after the Lebanese government expressed its frustration over ongoing Israeli strikes and overflights in the country.
“We have many tasks ahead of us, the most important being the enemy's (Israel's) withdrawal from all the lands it encroached on during its recent aggression,” he said after meeting with army chief Joseph Aoun in a Lebanese military barracks in the southeastern town of Marjayoun. “Then the army can carry out its tasks in full.”
The Lebanese military for years has relied on financial aid to stay functional, primarily from the United States and other Western countries. Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is hoping that the war’s end and ceasefire deal will bring about more funding to increase the military’s capacity to deploy in the south, where Hezbollah’s armed units were notably present.
Though they were not active combatants, the Lebanese military said that dozens of its soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes on their premises or patrolling convoys in the south. The Israeli army acknowledged some of these attacks.