Families with children between six months and five years old are scheduled to receive flu shots this weekend at the Pontevedra Provincial Hospital. A text message was sent to them on the day of the appointment, but, as the nurse in the device activated in the external consultation entrance area (Juaquin Costa Street) said, they did not have to go to the stated time because “through mediation, if they want to come to another A place where they will be equally cared for because the priority is to vaccinate as many children as possible.” “Today we opened the door at ten o’clock, and there were already people waiting at nine o’clock, so we opened the door for them.” The professional said.
In this way, the General Hospital of Pontevedra has gathered almost 2,500 children on Saturday and today (Sunday) from 10 am to 8 pm. That means about 5,000 people attended over two days over the weekend. “Of course, we know that not all families will come, but we hope that many will come,” health workers hope.
Sylvia Almodo, deputy director of the Department of Primary Health Care, confirmed that so far only 22.28% of children in the Pontevedra and Osalnes health zones have been vaccinated against influenza.
We must remember that last year Galicia launched the influenza vaccine among children under 5 years old and ended this pioneering experience with an immunization rate of 54%, which is why it is so important now to achieve the current percentage of children protected.
Flu + COVID-19
In addition to children, we are also working to increase the number of adults covered by influenza+COVID-19 vaccination.
Data so far show that in the health sector, 63.55% of people aged 70 to 79 have received a flu vaccine and 61.05% have received a COVID-19 vaccine. For seniors aged 80 or above, the coverage rate for influenza is 76.24% and the coverage rate for COVID-19 is 73.21%.
“These figures are what we have to publicize because in some cases they are 20% less than last year,” Silvia Amoedo stressed.
This will try to pass Next Sunday, November 26, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the “vacunodrome” is open to seniors aged 80 and over The Xunta building in Campolongo and the Hospital do Salnés have been opened. These patients, who have not yet been vaccinated, are already receiving text messages on their phones asking them to “re-vacculate.”
“As far as COVID-19 is concerned, the overall numbers are lower than in previous years because the response has been so good and now people seem to have forgotten about the virus and are no longer afraid of it. In that sense, the message is to keep getting vaccinated, Especially the elderly, they are the vulnerable and the ones most affected by the coronavirus,” he believes.
The reasons they gave were first of all “they were leaving it until later”. Amdo confirmed that in fact, the health sector has received more than 3,000 resignations.
“We would like to remind you that now is the time to vaccinate, later the peak of the flu will come and we are already late. There are already many respiratory processes, which is why we hope to have a large proportion of vaccinations, because in January Vaccines don’t make sense,” concluded the Associate Director of Nursing.
120 people wait in the emergency room a day
The emergency services at Pontevedra Montecello Hospital were particularly active last week. “There were days when we had up to 120 people in our emergency room and we even had to put them in the X-ray room,” explained a health worker at the service. The most stressful time of the year for work. Many patients come here with a variety of infectious diseases, from bad colds to influenza, COVID-19, and even pneumonia caused by different viruses.
“The problem is that people have become overconfident, and because of the lack of masks, which was already the case before the pandemic, it is not uncommon for people with different respiratory systems to arrive here,” said the professional. For example, last Thursday was particularly active , because a total of 192 patients were admitted to the Emergency Service of the Reference Hospital of Pontevedra.
“On some days we had 19 people ordered in because of their condition.” Health authorities are inviting high-risk groups to get flu and coronavirus vaccinations to avoid the worst cases of both diseases. Currently, there are 85 active COVID-19 infections in the health zones of Pontevedra and Osalnes (who have reported to Sergas), 13 of whom are hospitalized.