Flu vaccine to be available for all adults

The Ministry of Health in the Valencia region will begin immunisation against the influenza virus for people between 18 and 59 years of age who request it from Monday, December 4.

With this measure, the aim is not only to avoid the contagion of all those people who decide to receive the dose of the vaccine against the virus, but to protect the most vulnerable population, which may suffer complications as a result of their personal situation and if they belong to any of risk groups.

In this regard, a total of 824,857 doses of vaccines have already been administered to people included in the prioritised risk groups since the start of the campaign, last October 16. By province, there are 423,597 immunised people in Valencia, 308,417 in Alicante and 92,843 in Castellón.

If we compare it with the same period of the previous year’s vaccination campaign, 6% more vaccines have been administered.

More than 65% of the total doses administered (538,550) have been to people over 64 years of age, which means a coverage of 51%. For their part, social and health personnel have received 47,281 doses and 26,742 people resident in social and health centres have been immunised, which means coverage of 57.65% and 79.02%, respectively.

As for children under the age of five (between 6 and 59 months) without risk pathology, whose immunisation has been one of the novelties of this 2023-2024 season’s campaign, 40,180 doses have already been administered. Specifically, there have been 15,101 doses inoculated to babies aged 6 months to 2 years and 25,079 doses administered with the intranasal vaccine to boys and girls aged 2 to 4 years.

In this sense, it must be remembered that minors are the main transmitters of the flu, if they suffer from it, and are a source of contagion for older people (their grandparents), another of the prioritised groups, therefore, both the vaccination of boys and girls up to the age of 5, and of older people, is essential to avoid suffering from the flu this autumn and this winter.

Experts point to the fact that the temperatures recorded in recent weeks have caused people to minimise the existence of these respiratory viruses, which can have serious consequences in risk groups. For this reason, faced with the imminent arrival of the cold, they recommend that both the risk groups who have not yet been vaccinated and the general population, who will be able to receive the dose from December 4, request an appointment to be immunised.

Regarding the vaccination against COVID-19, 582,955 doses have already been administered. By province: 63,886 in Castellón, 220,684 in Alicante and 298,385 in Valencia.

Of the total number of people vaccinated, by risk group, the immunisation of 523,485 people over the age of 60 and 32,388 doses of health and/or socio-health personnel stands out.

It should be noted that people who have recently had COVID-19 should wait the recommended time for inoculation, which is three months.

The main objective of this campaign, which started in the Valencian Community last October 16, is to reduce morbidity and mortality due to flu and COVID-19, especially in vulnerable groups. 

The risk groups defined in the current campaign are: residents in centres for the elderly and functional diversity, health and socio-health personnel, people aged 60 or over (instead of 65 or over), people under 60 with pathologies of risk and pregnant women.

This year, healthy boys and girls aged 6 to 59 months, or with risk pathology up to the age of 14, and smokers under 60 have also been included in the flu vaccine.