More than three years after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out around the world and five months after the World Health Organization ended the pandemic, Andalusia will start a regular vaccination campaign on these dates this Monday, an operation that will not only The flu, and also the coronavirus, is going to be around for years to come; because right now it’s not even in its seasonal phase.
This dual vaccination campaign against influenza and Covid-19 will be the first affected in residential centers, Health Minister Catalina García reported on Tuesday after a meeting of the Council of Governments of Andalusia crowd. ; the general population aged 85 or over; and staff in health and social care centres, residential and disability centres. In addition, there are students on placements in health and social care centres, residential and disability centres; and groups of children aged six to 59 months attending calendared vaccine appointments.
As has been done in recent years, flu and Covid-19 vaccinations will be carried out in phases. After the first phase, which starts on October 16, people over 70, children six months or older, adults with risk illnesses, highly dependent people and their professional caregivers, and pregnant women will be vaccinated.
The next step will begin on October 30th. People over 60 years of age will have their turn for double vaccination; other professional groups such as security forces, farm workers, ranchers or veterinarians; and staff of prison institutions.
The final phase will begin in December, when people whose homes are 60 or older or in high-risk groups will receive dual vaccinations.
record numbers
Catalina Garcia pointed out that Andalusia will provide 2.2 million doses of vaccine for this event, an increase of 7.5% compared to the previous event. The increase is due to a lowering of the starting age for adult flu vaccination, from 65 to 60, the same as for Covid-19 vaccination.
From a technical point of view, quadrivalent influenza vaccines will be used, that is, they cover the two A strains and the two B strains of the virus, which is why, as the committee emphasizes, they are the most complete at the moment ” And, therefore, those that offer better protection and reliability.”
For the purposes of this event, the available Covid-19 vaccines include the main variant currently circulating in Spain: Ómicron XBB.1.5. Precisely, the advisor noted in his speech that they have been waiting for the announcement of the vaccination campaign in order to update medical data in order to provide better protection for citizens.
Catalina García used her intervention to report some data related to the same campaign, but from last year. Regarding the coverage of the anti-influenza campaign in 2022-2023, the counselor pointed out that more than 70% of people over 65 years old have been vaccinated; 46% of children aged 6 to 59 months, this is the first time that they have been included in the system’s vaccination coverage; 81.3% were pregnant women; 50.6% were health and social health professionals. In fact, of all the figures, he does regret the last one, which he considers too low, but which he is confident will increase in 2023/2024.
Specifically, from October 3 to the end of April, a total of 1,953,383 doses of vaccine were administered, an increase of 206,662 doses over the 2021-22 campaign, making it the highest number of flu doses administered in history.