Tuesday, October 8, 2024, 20:09
Despite how far away the Covid pandemic seems to be, the virus has already become part of our lives, as have vaccines. This Wednesday, the Ministry of Health begins the coronavirus and flu vaccination process, and again it will do so by age group, starting with the oldest people and those who are at greater risk, both because of their work and for other reasons.
Specifically, this first phase that begins this October 9 affects people confined in residential centers for the elderly and disability centers; the general population aged 80 or over, and the staff of health and socio-health centres, residences and disability centres; as well as people with great dependency at home and their usual caregivers; and pregnant and postpartum women in the first six months. Likewise, students in internships at health and social health centers, residences and disability centers will receive the flu vaccine.
As usual, Health has set an agenda so that this process is carried out in stages. In this schedule, starting on October 16, people over 70 years of age will receive the flu and covid vaccination, the flu vaccination will be given to children aged 6 months or older with pathologies and risk situations, and people over 70 years of age will receive the flu vaccination. 6 months to 11 years very high risk.
The next phase will begin on October 23. From then on, those over 60 years of age will receive the double vaccination; other professional groups, such as security forces and penitentiary institutions; and the same will happen with other professional groups, such as veterinarians, farm workers or ranchers. In addition, teaching staff of children under 5 years of age will receive the flu vaccine.
The last phase will take place starting November 13, when the double flu and covid vaccine will be administered to those living in the home with people aged 60 or over, chronically ill people, pregnant women and postpartum women. From this date, smokers can also receive the flu vaccine.
People included in the target groups can make an appointment through the Salud Responde application or by telephone, ClicSalud+ or at their health center.
As highlighted by the Ministry of Health, the objective for this 2024-25 campaign is to achieve 75% coverage for the elderly, pregnant women and health professionals; and 60% in people with chronic pathologies and children aged 6 months to 4 years. For this campaign, the Government of Andalusia has acquired more than 2 million doses against flu, which represents a total of 20 million euros.
Low vaccination
Although it may seem distant, last winter the flu and covid vaccination rate fell five points compared to the previous year. This caused a certain overflow in the health centers of the province of Malaga during Christmas and the following weeks.
According to official data from the Andalusian Health Service to which this newspaper had access, at the beginning of December 2023 not even one in four citizens over 60 years of age in the province had been inoculated with the vaccines to combat both diseases.
Specifically, 37 percent of this age group had gone to the health center to get vaccinated against the flu, a figure that dropped slightly in the case of covid. According to the person responsible for vaccination in Andalusia, David Moreno, the coronavirus figure was already lower than that of the flu in 2022. With these percentages on the table, it was deduced that said vaccination had fallen around five and a half points less than the previous year, reasons that Moreno attributed to greater distance from the pandemic.
Despite this, the person responsible for vaccination then wanted to make a “call to the public”, because – especially the flu – “it is going to arrive.” In fact, four weeks after that call cases began to rise.
Although this drop in vaccination then affected the group of people over 60, in other areas the situation was quite similar to 2022. «It is true that young people with chronic pathologies are more or less getting vaccinated the same. “Children under five years of age are also being inoculated with behavior similar to last year,” said Moreno, who once again insisted on why vaccination is necessary for the elderly. «They are people who, due to their age, are more at risk. Clearly, they are the ones who are admitted the most for the flu every year; and the older you are, the greater the risk of complications upon admission, or of death. “That is why we make this call.”