Prevention against flu and Covid is on the rise: 7,000 more people are being vaccinated each day than last year.
Health officials predict that hospitalizations will decrease if immunization against respiratory viruses increases.
BarcelonaEvery day, an additional 7,000 people are choosing to get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 compared to last year, since the vaccination campaign began. This was explained on Thursday by the Secretary of Public Health, Esteve Fernández, who believes this will have "a very significant impact" on preventing severe illness and its complications. This, in theory, suggests a calmer winter in healthcare facilities, since higher vaccination rates mean fewer severe cases will require hospitalization, thus reducing the strain on the healthcare system. Immunization is especially important for vulnerable individuals, the elderly, and those living in care homes, as they account for the highest rates of hospitalizations and deaths each year when the cold weather arrives due to respiratory viruses.
The vaccination campaign started five weeks ago. Since then, 726,549 people have received the flu vaccine and 483,452 the COVID-19 vaccine. This represents an increase of 175,024 and 79,797 vaccinations, respectively, compared to last year's figures. The campaign aims to "protect the most vulnerable from complications," reduce the risk of infection, improve public health, and mitigate the impact of respiratory viruses on healthcare facilities. Those encouraged to get vaccinated include residents of care homes, people over sixty, pregnant women, and, for the flu vaccine only, children between 6 months and 5 years old.
Vaccination Coverage
Currently, flu vaccination coverage reaches 45% in those over 80 and 27% in people aged 70 to 79, while for COVID-19 it is 37% and 21%, respectively. In children between 6 months and 5 years old, flu vaccination coverage is 21%. Most people are vaccinated by appointment, 32% are opportunistic vaccinations (taking advantage of a visit to the primary care center for another reason), and 17% are walk-in visits. These latter visits have drawn criticism from primary care nurses, who They have criticized the excessive workload to provide answers to all people and have accused the Salut department of improvising.
