Vaccination begins in Asturian health centers: “The flu will hit us this year”

The Principality’s Health Service (Sespa) yesterday extended its vaccination campaign against covid and flu for the entire target population, after the last seven days focusing only on nursing homes. From now on, you can make an appointment at primary health centers to receive the appropriate doses. However, health authorities plan to “actively call” families with children who will be recommended for prevention at the end of October.

In particular, influenza vaccination is recommended for children aged 6 to 59 months, primarily to prevent the spread of the virus from kindergartens and schools into the home. In fact, this year the promotion, as an innovation, also includes employees of these educational centers. As for Covid, it is advisable to protect children from 6 months to 12 years old who have risky clinical conditions or serious chronic diseases.

To promote immunization in these age groups, Sespa will provide special hours in the afternoon. “We hope to get a good answer. The vaccine is safe, it really protects us and the side effects are minimal,” Marta Huerta emphasized yesterday, at the start of the second phase of the vaccination campaign. “I encourage people to get vaccinated,” he insisted.

The call was extended to the entire target population, “especially the elderly” and groups most susceptible to complications. “We expect an epidemiologically stronger season than previous ones,” warned the deputy head of the Ministry of Health. According to Marta Huerta, the flu “will attack us this year” and to minimize its impact, “the best measure we have is a vaccine.”

The target group includes people over 60 years of age – more than 350,000 people in Asturias; children under 5 years old; residents of hostels and social health centers; chronically ill; immunocompromised patients and their cohabitants; pregnant women; smokers (only in case of flu); essential public service workers; medical workers; staff of kindergartens and preschool education centers; and state security forces and agencies. The Principality purchased 399 thousand doses against influenza. Coronavirus prevention is carried out by the Ministry of Health, which centralizes its collection and distributes materials weekly to autonomous communities. “We will store vaccines in health centers until March, when the flu stops circulating,” Huerta explained.