The Regional Minister for Health and Families, Jesús Aguirre, during his appearance in Parliament today, reported that “767,960 Andalusians have been vaccinated against the flu since the campaign began on 14 October, which means that 38.9% of the 1.6 million doses we have in just two and a half weeks of the campaign have been administered”.
By provinces, Aguirre detailed that “so far 66,310 people have been vaccinated in Almeria, 96,826 in Cadiz, 81,323 in Cordoba, 94,768 in Granada, 45,162 in Huelva, 75,102 in Jaen, 134,927 in Malaga and 173,542 in Seville”. “The evolution of the campaign in Andalusia has been very positive,” he stressed.
In this regard, the Minister for Health and Families explained that “477,736 people over the age of 65 have already been vaccinated, which represents 33% coverage, and in higher risk age groups, i.e. those aged 80 to 89, coverage is already 41.4%”.
In her speech, Aguirre recalled that “Andalusia was the first autonomous community to launch the anti-flu campaign, with the aim of protecting the most vulnerable people”. To this end, “we have acquired more than 1.6 million doses of vaccines, more than 1,600 vaccination points have been set up and we have the best flu vaccines currently available for each vaccination target group”.
The Minister stressed that “for the first time, 100% of the vaccines to be administered are tetravalent, that is, with two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B, so that protection is the highest possible”. In addition, “for people over 60 years of age in residential homes there will be a vaccine with a higher antigen load, to optimise the immune response to the population as much as possible.
Aguirre pointed out that “the flu vaccination is being carried out in stages, so that on 14 October we began administering the vaccine both in old people’s homes, disability and chronic care centres and to all health and social healthcare staff in Andalusia and trainee students in residences, disability and chronic care centres”.
Subsequently, “since 18 October, we have been vaccinating all people aged 65, regardless of whether or not they have chronic pathologies; people aged between 6 months and 64 years with chronic pathologies and pregnant women”.
The Minister indicated that “on 2 November, other essential professional groups such as the State Security Forces and Corps joined in, and from December, home carers and people living with people over 65 or at risk will begin to be vaccinated”.
“Elderly people in residential homes who are not yet vaccinated against pneumococcus are also being administered this vaccine and those over 70 and people over 12 years of age with pathologies of the extended Group 7 are being administered the flu vaccine at the same time as the third dose of the COVID”, he concluded.