flu and Covid vaccination dates

Start date of the flu and Covid vaccination campaign in each community

The Ministry of Health will begin the vaccination campaign against respiratory viruses on Wednesday, October 1, for institutionalized people, pregnant women and children, and on the 14th for the target population, in addition to “offering” immunization against the Respiratory Syncytal Virus (RSV) to “vulnerable” people.

The latter is one of the three novelties that the head of the department, Alejandro Vázquez, has highlighted in the campaign that he has presented along with the extension of the age of vaccination for influenza in children, from 5 to 8 years old, and that the vaccine against Covid-19 will be offered to the general population from the age of 70 and not from the age of 60as has been done since the pandemic.

Vázquez has given details of this new immunization process together with the Regional Health Manager, Violeta Martínez, and the Public Health Manager, Cristina Granda.

During his speech, he explained the total investment is 18,093,717 euros. Specifically, the Ministry has acquired 765,650 doses of flu vaccines, with a total expenditure of 9,485,637 euros, including the intranasal vaccine for the child population from 24 months to 8 years.

To all this is added 2,825,680 euros for the acquisition of the 13,000 doses of monoclonal antibody (Nirsevimab) against VRS for the child population, as well as 5,782,400 euros more allocated to the 50,000 doses of RSV for institutionalized people.

The campaign will begin this Wednesday with the vaccination of nursing professionals in each of the health areas of the Community and that they will be able to go to the socio-health institutions to administer the flu and syncipital virus vaccine and in a second time the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered. They will also be able to get vaccinated from that day at their health centers children and pregnant women.

Health personnel will be able to receive vaccination against flu and COVID-19 in their workplaces through occupational prevention services starting also on Wednesday.

The population targeted by the vaccination campaign, general populationyou can request an appointment now since days before October 14“well in the telephone number of your health centergood in person at the same health center, through the health portal or the Sacyl connect application“.

At this point, Vázquez has stressed the importance of getting vaccinated. “First of all, to avoid suffering from the flu or Covid, which can have important consequences on health. And also from here I want to call on health and social health professionals to get vaccinated since vaccination reduces the transmission of the virus and prevents suffering from these diseases in vulnerable populations such as the sick and people who live in social health residences,” he added.

Moderate incidence

Vázquez has pointed out that the incidence of flu in the southern hemisphere has been “moderate” intensityto clarify that behavior does not have to follow that model in Spain.

However, he has taken the opportunity to emphasize that it is the “right” time to start the campaignsince the circulation of influenza viruses, both influenza A variables and some cases of influenza B in Castilla y León are “enormously low”.

Infantile RSV bronchiolitis

This fall the immunization campaign against the virus will also be carried out again. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) with nirsevimab, the drug that provides immunity against RSV and whose infection causes what we commonly know as bronchiolitis.

Immunization will be carried out by administering a single dose of nirsevimab during the 2025-2026 campaign to all children born between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026.

Depending on the date of birth, the administration will be carried out in the hospital or health center. Thus, those born between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026 will receive the monoclonal antibody in the hospital at birth.

Additionally, nirsevimab will be administered to children at high risk for severe RSV disease, including premature babies less than 35 weeksa single dose before turning 12 months (if they received a dose in the previous season they may receive a new dose at the beginning of the 2024-2025 season if they have not yet turned 12 months); patients with congenital heart disease, with bronchopulmonary dysplasia; with cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass and patients with other underlying pathologies that pose a high risk of suffering from severe bronchiolitis due to RSV.

As a novelty, the Ministry will vaccinate against RSV institutionalized people and risk groups starting October 1, as Vázquez explained.

Balance

During the regional anti-flu campaign of 2024vaccination coverage increased as age increased. Between 60 and 64 years inclusive, 31.9 percent (59,835 vaccinated people); between 65 and 69 years51.5 percent (84,670 vaccinated people); between 70 and 74 years62.9 percent (86,152 vaccinated people); from 75 to 79 years old, 71.4 percent (86,194 vaccinated people) and older than that age80 percent (176,754 people vaccinated).

As for the workers of the Regional Health Managementthe number of health professionals vaccinated in the campaign has been 17,197, distributed by care areas as follows: primary care, 4,243 (47 percent), hospital care, 12,773 (44.6 percent) and health emergencies, 181 (56.4 percent).

Another of the indicators that are part of the monitoring of flu vaccination objectives in the entire National Health System is that referring to the pregnant, group in which a total of 5,170 have been vaccinated, 57.4 percent of pregnant women in the Community. For their part, 19,505 workers have received the flu dose, six points above the national average.

Regarding vaccination against influenza in children from 6 to 59 months, the target population group, 31,924 children have been vaccinated, of which 12,642 are children between 6 and 23 months and 19,282 children between 24 and 59 months, the latter vaccinated with the intranasal vaccine. Coverage has reached 49.96 percent, with 69.9 and 43.9 percent in each target group, respectively.

These coverages place Castilla y León “well above” the national average, 36.16 percent, which places it in fourth place nationally, only behind the communities that began vaccinating this age group in the previous campaign.

The 2024 campaign against COVID 19 in Castilla y León reflects a total of vaccinated citizens of 402,790, that is, 16.8 percent of the population. The Ministry highlights the vaccination of people aged 60 and over, a group of the general population to whom the campaign was primarily aimed, among whom 347,662 people have been vaccinated, 41.9 percent of the population of that age.

Vázquez has recalled that This year it will be administered to the population aged 70 and not from 60 as until now. A decision that has been made within the Public Health Commission of the Vaccine Presentation of the Interterritorial Council due to “how the epidemic is evolving.”

Finally, in the second immunization campaign against respiratory syncytial virus, a total of 12,616 doses of nirsevimab were administered in Castilla y León. The coverage achieved in the recruitment of children born between April 1 and September 30, 2024 has been 93.9 percent and the coverage of children born during the VRS circulation season, born between October 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, has been 95.6 percent.