Cristine Rochol/PMPA
The influenza vaccination campaign, which began on the 25th, has already immunized 33,056 people in Porto Alegre, according to data from the Ministry of Health. The estimated target audience to receive the vaccine is 697,995. So far, the elderly group is the one with the highest coverage of vaccinated people. Of the 292,260 who should receive the vaccine dose, 30,191 were immunized, which represents more than 10% of the total.
This week, the public eligible to receive the vaccine was expanded to health and education workers, homeless people, people with chronic illnesses, people with permanent disabilities and the population deprived of liberty and employees of the deprivation of liberty system.
Priority groups for the first week – children, pregnant women, postpartum women, elderly people over 60, indigenous peoples and quilombolas – can continue looking for Health Units to receive vaccination. In the last stage, in the third week of the campaign, members of the Security and Rescue Forces, the Armed Forces, truck drivers, urban public transport workers and port workers join the first groups.
The vaccine offered by the Unified Health System is trivalent, guaranteeing protection against the Influenza A H3N1 and H3N2 and Influenza B viruses. For the Municipal Health Secretary, Fernando Ritter, there is good demand in the first days of the campaign. “Our main objective is to vaccinate at least 90% of each of the priority groups, reducing complications caused by viral infections that can lead to hospital admissions and deaths.” The manager reinforces the request for families to take their children to be vaccinated. To date, 1,943 have received immunization, which represents 2.7% of the vaccination coverage target.
Vaccination D-Day will be on April 13th and the administration of doses will continue until May 31st. All health units apply the vaccine.
