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Morocco brings together healthcare experts and stakeholders and creates national awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction

mor_covid_19_resize Morocco’s Ministry of Health is ramping up health awareness activities during the critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry is focusing on bringing together healthcare experts and stakeholders to combat COVID-19 and creating national awareness through mass and social media.

Bringing together healthcare experts and stakeholders to combat tobacco use in the context of COVID-19

Morocco’s Ministry of Health organized a webinar, on 31 May 2020, with the participation of key healthcare national and international stakeholders, namely experts, associations, professionals and researchers. The webinar, attended by 244 participants, aimed at sharing information on tobacco use and challenges in the time of COVID-19. The topics covered were tobacco control collective responsibility, epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in Morocco, bronchial and pneumonia link to tobacco in the air from COVID-19, a review on tobacco and COVID-19 and the role of legislation in the fight against tobacco in Morocco.

Awareness campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic

mor_covid_resize To coincide with World No Tobacco Day 2020, Morocco’s Ministry of Health developed a campaign consisting of a video capsule and an audio version of it as well as printed materials such as posters and flyers. These materials were produced with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO). The materials were also disseminated widely through Sehati website and various social media platforms. The video capsule focused on: linking tobacco use to the transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19; the increased risk of developing complications of the disease; risks related to passive smoking during confinement for different groups such as children; the harmfulness of tobacco products in general whether or not related to COVID-19; and the importance of controlling tobacco use and limiting the use of waterpipes at this critical time. The video capsule was aired ten times throughout June. The audio version of the capsule was broadcast widely through radio channels. The capsules were received positively by the population and resource people working in the field of tobacco control. The figures for the campaign on social media (Facebook and Instagram) during June 2020 include a coverage of 2 million with 3.8 million impressions and 270 000 interactions. The campaign reached a wide geographically spread audience; the majority of the audience was in the age bracket of 18–34, with an overall representation of 71% males and 29% females.

Morocco’s Ministry of Health disseminated—in attendance areas—educational posters and flyers to inform smokers about the risks of smoking especially in young patients and to speed up smoking cessation. It also launched a COVID-19 awareness page on Facebook covering COVID-19 prevention, protection and risk factors; smoking was highlighted as one of the key risk factors. The Facebook page received many messages daily from people reaching out to quit smoking. The Ministry launched a mobile application (Wiqaytna) to keep the public updated on latest COVID-19 developments as well as prevention measures to protect them from the virus.

Way forward

Morocco’s Ministry of Health is planning for another campaign, focused on help with smoking cessation, in the next coming few months. Among the tools, planned to be developed as part of this campaign, is a virtual smoking cessation tutorial targeted at health professionals. The tutorial will include brief intervention and assessment tools. In future, the Ministry will explore establishing national toll-free quit lines as the pandemic showed the potential value of such lines.

Future plans include strengthening the advocacy in the fight against tobacco in Morocco and developing a comprehensive cessation programme. This can be achieved by establishing the burden of smoking on health and the economic costs. In turn, it will enable decision-makers and political stakeholders to make decisions based on evidence of the tobacco burden in Morocco.

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