Autumn Combined Flu And Covid Injections

On Monday, October 9, the 2023/2024 vaccination campaign against flu and Covid began in Andalucia for people in residential centres for the elderly and disability centres, the general population aged 85 or over and associated health staff.

The Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Junta de Andalucia recommends that all target groups be vaccinated against flu and Covid to prevent serious infection effectively and safely from these viruses.

For this campaign, the Andalucian Government has increased by 7.5 per cent the number of flu vaccines compared to 2022 which has now topped 2.2 million.

This increase is mainly due to the lowering of the starting age of flu vaccination in adults, who will now begin to be vaccinated systematically from the age of 60, in line with vaccination against Covid.

Phase 2

Starting on October 16, people over 70 years of age, children aged six months or older and adults with risk factors, dependent people and their professional caregivers, and pregnant women will receive the flu and Covid vaccination.

Phase 3

The next phase will begin on October 30 when, those over 60 years of age and other professional groups, such as security forces and penitentiary institutions, veterinarians and farm workers will receive the double vaccination.

Phase 4

The last phase will take place starting in December, when the double flu and Covid vaccine will be administered to those living in the home with people aged 60 or over, or people at risk.

Those in the target groups may make an appointment through the Salud Responde application, ClicSalud+, by phone or at their health centre.

Each year the number of injections increases and for the 2022/2023 season which ran from October 3 to the end of April 2023, 1,953,383 doses were administered, which is 206,662 more than the 2021/2022 campaign and that was the year that the most flu doses were administered in Andalucia’s history.

Visit the Junta de Andalucia Health Department (a Spanish language only site) for more detailed information.

Whilst many will be in favour of this decision, others who oppose the Covid inoculation will be likely to criticise the fact that it is combined with the much longer running flu injection.