A 33-year-old Moroccan woman from the city of Marrakech received her dose of the Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine yesterday, Monday, July 26, 2021, at an official vaccination center (Bab Ighli). She died a few hours later, but the cause has not yet been determined.
Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine
The young woman worked at a hotel in the upper-class Agdal district and went with two colleagues of the same age to the Bab Ighli vaccination center.
“At 10 a.m., a hotel shuttle came to take us away. All three of us were in good health. Our friend who died had anemia, but she had been completely cured of it for over a year. After we got the vaccine, we fainted trying to get into a cab and were taken back to the vaccination center to be taken care of but sadly our friend died before our eyes, on the spot, even before we could be rushed to the Mohammed VI Hospital,” one of the deceased woman’s colleagues said in a statement to local digital media.
Morocco received 300,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine this past Saturday, and the country is just starting to vaccinate its 25- to 29-year-olds.
A source in the health ministry’s delegation in Marrakech, contacted by Le360, an online news website, said, “We cannot relate this death to vaccination,” before adding that an investigation has been launched to determine the circumstances of the death, without providing further details. Health Secretary Khalid Aït Taleb’s health ministry has yet to officially comment on this sad incident.
In the Bab Ighli vaccination center, nearly 500 people received the vaccine from the American company Johnson & Johnson. On Saturday, July 24, Morocco received a batch of 300,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine under the COVAX program. The health authorities decided to reserve them for areas where the virus is spreading at high rates, particularly Marrakech, Agadir, and Casablanca.
*Correction: The woman was 33 years old not 27
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