The Regional Minister of Health is pleased to have reversed the trend of low coverage last year, which is the main objective of this season.
The pilot vaccination plan in schools achieves a vaccination rate of 43.2%, more than double that of the general child population (21.77%).
The flu vaccination campaign carried out this season 2024-2025 in the Balearic Islands has immunised almost 31% (30.9%) of the target population against the seasonal virus. This is still a low percentage, but it significantly improved the 22.68% achieved in the previous campaign. Vaccination coverage at the end of January is 8 points higher than at this time last year.
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More than 30% of the target population has been vaccinated against the flu in the Balearic Islands, eight points more than in the previous campaign
The Regional Minister of Health, Manuela García, accompanied by the Director General of Public Health, Elena Esteban, and the Deputy Director of Care at IBSalut, Concha Zaforteza, presented the results of the 2024-25 flu vaccination campaign.
In the islands, 187,794 people have been vaccinated out of an estimated total target population of 606,685, which gives the aforementioned percentage of 30.9%. This figure is also 7.7% higher than the 174,245 Balearic Islanders who were immunised in the previous campaign. In absolute figures, 13,549 more people have been vaccinated so far than in the 2023-24 season.
By islands, 148,713 people have been vaccinated in Mallorca (30.9%), 14,150 in Menorca (29.7%) and 18,304 in Ibiza and Formentera (23.7%). In the private health care system, the Servei de Salut has sent 7,000 flu vaccines and the estimate is that it has dosed some 6,000 vials.
The Regional Ministry of Health values the results obtained, as it has achieved the objective set at the beginning of this campaign, which was none other than to reverse the trend of low vaccination coverage, among the lowest in the country, which had been occurring in this autonomous community since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Regional Minister of Health, Manuela García Romero, highlighted this break in a negative trend that will be the basis for continuing to increase coverage in future vaccination campaigns.
She also highlighted the efforts made in this campaign with the implementation of a pilot vaccination plan in schools and the possibility of vaccination without prior appointment implemented in several health centres and public hospitals throughout the islands, among other measures.
Twice as many children are vaccinated in schools
Regarding vaccination in schools, García Romero highlighted the excellent results achieved in this first pilot plan. While 21.77% of children aged 24 to 59 months were vaccinated among the general population, in the pilot plan carried out in 24 public, private and state-subsidised schools, 43.2% were immunised, more than double the number. A total of 2,816 pupils from all over the archipelago were called upon to receive 1,217 intranasal vaccines.
More responsibility among healthcare workers
Coverage against influenza among health workers has reached 28.73% in the whole of the archipelago in this campaign, compared to 15.8% the previous year, 13 points higher. The messages appealing to the responsibility of healthcare staff to get vaccinated to avoid putting the patients they attend at risk, together with the fact that vaccination teams have come to immunise the staff of the different medical services, could be behind this improvement, which encourages Health to continue with this strategy.
Vaccination rates among health workers varied on each of the islands: 28.7% were vaccinated in Mallorca, 23.8% in Menorca, while in Ibiza and Formentera, only 17.9% of their health workers were vaccinated.
Among the over-60s, the vaccination rate in the Balearic Islands was 43.6%, with better data in Mallorca (43.5%) and worse in Menorca (40.5%) and Ibiza and Formentera (38.3%).
Coverage of elderly people admitted to nursing homes was 78.8% in Mallorca, 80.2% in Menorca and 70.6% in Ibiza and Formentera.
There is also much room for improvement among pregnant women. In this campaign, 17.44% of pregnant women were immunised against the flu, half a point below the figure for 2023-24 (18.05%). By islands, 20.4% have been immunised in Mallorca, 10.1% in Menorca and 5.8% in Ibiza and Formentera.
Of all the children vaccinated in the last two flu campaigns, all healthy children between the ages of 6 and 59 months, 24.4% of the target population was immunised in this campaign, four and a half points higher than in the previous year, when 19.91% of this cohort was vaccinated. A total of 9,457 children have been vaccinated out of a cohort of 38,724. By islands, the percentage was 25.7% in Mallorca, 21.8% in Menorca and 17.7% in the Pitiusas.
Covid-19 and RSV
This campaign also included immunisation against the Covid-19 virus and overall coverage in the Balearic Islands was 24.2%, with 120,696 people vaccinated out of an estimated target population of 458,323. By islands, coverage was 25% in Mallorca, 22.7% in Menorca and 18.2% in Ibiza and Formentera.
Finally, about protecting babies against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the response of parents has once again been very responsible. At present, with two months left until the end of the immunisation campaign in March, 75.3% of newborns have been vaccinated, the same percentage as at the end of the previous campaign. As will be recalled, this is the second season in which newborns are immunised with a monoclonal antibody against this respiratory virus that causes bronchiolitis among newborns.