Moroccan Health Minister Plans To Discuss Sputnik V With Russian Counterpart Next Week

Moroccan Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb told Sputnik on Friday he was planning to hold negotiations with Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko on Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V next week

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2020) Moroccan Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb told Sputnik on Friday he was planning to hold negotiations with Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko on Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V next week.

"Concerning Russian vaccine Sputnik V, I have recently met with the representative of the producer personally in Morocco. As for now, next week I am planning to negotiate with the Russian health minister to discuss non-replicating viral vector vaccine Sputnik V, developed by the Russian Gamaleya research center," Ait Taleb told Sputnik on Friday.

The minister added that Morocco had already decided to purchase COVID-19 vaccines produced by China's Sinopharm and UK-Swedish AstraZeneca, which were expected to arrive in the country in December, but the country continued to negotiate with other pharmaceutical companies.

"During the negotiations, we have selected several producers and, finally, opted for Chinese laboratory Sinopharm and Sinopharm and British-Swedish AstraZeneca. Their vaccines' clinical trials are very convincing. If everything is well, we will receive first arrivals by December. The negotiations on other laboratories are still continuing," Ait Taleb told Sputnik.

In August, Russia became the first country to register a COVID-19 vaccine, which was named Sputnik V. The clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya research institute, have demonstrated that its efficacy rate is over 90 percent.

According to the World Health Organization, Morocco has confirmed 340,684 COVID-19 cases, with 5,619 deaths. Over the past 24 hours, the country has recorded 4,178 new infections.