The Health Department is advancing vaccinations against influenza and COVID-19, including for children under 5.
The campaign will begin on September 22 in nursing homes and at-risk groups, and will be open to the rest of the population on October 13.
BarcelonaThe circulation of respiratory viruses such as influenza and COVID-19 increases during the fall and winter, and the Department of Health has launched its annual vaccination campaign to protect people at risk of complications if infected. Given that the forecast for the coming months is that the flu season could be two to four weeks earlier—as reported this Wednesday by the Deputy Director General of Surveillance and Response to Public Health Emergencies of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Jacobo Mendioroz—the vaccination campaign will also begin earlier than usual, in mid-September.
"The distribution of doses and the preparation of vaccination centers will begin in early September so that vaccination of the main risk groups can begin on the 22nd of that month," announced the Secretary of Public Health, Esteve Fernández. This includes people living in nursing homes, people over 80 years of age, and pregnant women.
As a new development, children under 5 and healthcare and social care workers will also be included in this first phase. All of them are part of the "target population." The remaining groups, including people over 60, will be able to begin vaccination starting October 13.
Fernández justified this move up with the high probability that the flu season will come earlier, as has happened in other countries, and asserts that immunizations must begin among the vulnerable population "as soon as possible." In fact, vaccination activity will be concentrated from the start of the campaign until December, with the end of the year with the elderly and people with high-risk diseases as protected as possible. To this end, and as a new development, vaccination hours will be extended.
More hours and reminders
"The key to increasing coverage is to improve people's accessibility to the vaccine," the secretary explained. These are the main results of the pilot test that was carried out during the previous campaign in the regions of Barcelonès Nord, Baix Maresme and Maresme Central, which consisted of increasing vaccination coverage of the target population, reinforcing the available hours, and increasing call messages to the population.
The Health Department rates the experience as "very positive," as the coverage achieved at these centers compared to the previous year has increased by more than three points, to 42.5%.
The unvaccinated represent half of those hospitalized.
The Ministry of Health also presented the 2024-2025 vaccination results. Regarding the flu, it highlighted the increase in infections and the decrease in hospitalizations compared to the previous year. Thus, the peak number of infections was 556 per 100,000 inhabitants, an increase of 35% compared to the previous year. In contrast, the maximum number of hospital admissions was 164 in one week, a decrease of almost 40% in one year.
Mendioroz explained that these results suggest that the greatest impact of the flu has diminished, and asserts that the 2025-2026 flu season is expected "with an overall incidence similar to the most recent." Along these lines, he emphasized that the unvaccinated accounted for more than half of those admitted with the flu, and 75% of those who ended up in the ICU. As for Covid, the incidence remains low and current figures have fallen by almost half compared to a year ago, despite the circulation of the new variant.
In the last campaign, approximately 1.4 million doses of flu vaccines were administered, and more than 900,000 of COVID-19 vaccines were administered, explained Montse Martínez Marcos, head of the Immunization Service at the Ministry of Public Health. "We are still above the vaccination rates of the years prior to the pandemic, which indicates that the pandemic has increased the population's perception of safety," she added.
Total coverage has been 38.1% for the flu vaccine, and 29.8% for COVID-19. In this regard, Martínez highlighted the increase in coverage among children between 6 and 59 months of age, rising from 28% to 36%. The health regions with the highest coverage rates were Lleida and Barcelona, while Girona, Penedès, and central Catalonia had the lowest rates.
