Around 27,000 children aged three to five are eligible for the school-based programme, which also offers voluntary vaccination to school staff.
A flu vaccination programme for young children is taking place across the Balearic Islands, with 351 schools scheduled to receive visits from mobile healthcare teams. Approximately 27,000 children aged between three and five are being offered vaccination during the campaign, which began on 5 October.
On Thursday, Balearic Health Minister Manuela García visited CEIP Joan Mas i Verd in Montuiri, Mallorca, where the vaccination programme is being carried out.
This is the second consecutive year that the initiative has been extended to all public, private and state-subsidised schools across the islands. It focuses on children enrolled in the second stage of early childhood education.
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Flu vaccination campaign reaches 351 schools across the Balearic Islands. Mobile vaccination teams deployed across the islands
The programme covers 273 educational centres in Mallorca, 43 in Ibiza, 31 in Menorca and four in Formentera.
The number of children expected to be offered vaccination is approximately the same as during the previous campaign.
The mobile service, known as VACMOVIL, brings healthcare and support staff directly to schools.
Its workforce includes 25 nurses, with 13 assigned to Mallorca, four to Menorca and eight to Ibiza and Formentera.
Another 13 nursing care assistants support the programme: six in Mallorca, three in Menorca and four in Ibiza and Formentera.
Administrative services are provided by nine staff members, comprising four in Mallorca, three in Menorca and two in the Pityusic Islands.
Seven drivers complete the mobile operation, with four working in Mallorca, two in Menorca and one covering Ibiza and Formentera.
This year’s programme also allows school employees to receive a flu vaccination voluntarily. Teachers, administrative workers and cleaning staff can be vaccinated when the mobile team visits their school.
Previous vaccination coverage reached 44.8%
During the previous campaign, 44.8% of children enrolled in the second stage of early childhood education received a flu vaccination.
That figure was almost ten times higher than the result recorded during the 2024 pilot programme.
The current campaign aims to achieve at least the same level of vaccination coverage.
Young children are among the age groups most frequently affected by influenza, which can sometimes cause serious illness.
Although flu-related mortality among children under 15 is very low, 95% of children who die from influenza are under five years old.
Children in this age group also have the second-highest rates of hospital admission and intensive care treatment for influenza, behind older people.
Vaccination is intended to protect children individually while also reducing the possibility of transmission to vulnerable people around them.
During her visit to the school in Montuiri, Manuela García was accompanied by Director General of Public Health Elena Esteban, Deputy Director of Healthcare Nursing Services Concha Zaforteza, and Director General of Early Childhood, Diversity Support and Educational Improvement Neus Riera.