Before the Social Sectors Committee at the House of Representatives, Ait Taleb underlined that the objective of these contracts was to acquire technical medical equipment and supplies (25% of the total amount), equipment relating to beds (12 %), x-ray machines (8%), hospital equipment (0.1%), laboratory supplies (19.1%), drugs and medical supplies (17%), as well as other acquisitions abroad which concern technical medical equipment, serological laboratory supplies and detection equipment, chemicals and drugs, in particular the raw material for chloroquine and personal protection means.

Everything concerning operations in laboratories and hospitals is provided under the contracts that the ministry concludes on an ongoing basis, in particular the mobilization of 5,970 hospital beds, including 1,200 intensive care beds, and the mobilization of 1,151 artificial ventilators, he said, adding that contracts were also concluded to equip 31 hospitals with scanners and to offer 73 mobile radios to medical personnel, in addition to 207 ultrasound machines.

He pointed out that more than 72 hospitals throughout the Kingdom have benefited from the equipment acquired, stressing that the ministry was able, through the process of negotiation with companies, to acquire these materials and equipment at a cost lower than the estimated one, since 83% of these contracts made it possible to save 20% of the cost, noting that these deals were concluded under decree n° 2.12.349 of March 20, 2020, as well as decree 2.20.270 (March 16, 2020 ), and that the purchasing of medical and biomedical equipment, means of personal protection and drugs has been managed in accordance with the phases of the implementation of negotiable contracts.

Regarding the market for buying serological screening tests, the Minister explained that in order to keep up with the epidemiological screening and monitoring efforts, the ministry received during the month of April 2020, two offers from two large companies having this serological analysis, stressing that a committee looked into the technical files of the two companies and the certificates of compliance with international standards adopted in Morocco and that it is in the light of their results that the best offer was chosen from a technical point of view.

"National laboratories now have 51 screening devices which cover all regions of the Kingdom, with a capacity of up to 100 tests per hour, which exempts the ministry from significant additional costs for the acquisition of these devices", he said, noting that the acquisition of these high-quality serological tests that comply with international standards was carried out according to a program that takes into account their period of validity.