Both the president of IMAS and Public Health have recalled the importance of ‘prevention’ during the administration of the vaccine in the Hermanitas de los Pobres (Sisters of the Poor)
The joint vaccination campaign against influenza and COVID-19 for the 2024-2025 season for the elderly and professionals in residences and day centres has already begun. It has done so with the administration of 88 vaccinations at the residence of the Hermanitas de los Pobres, which the Consell de Mallorca will soon take over full management to turn it into the island’s leading social and health centre.
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The combined vaccination of the flu and COVID-19 begins in the residences of elderly people of the Consell de Mallorca
This vaccination campaign includes the administration of the two vaccines, both to elderly people who live in residences or who are users of the day centres, and to the professionals who work there, with the aim of reinforcing the immune system and minimising the risk of contagion.
In this regard, both the Councillor for Social Welfare of the Consell de Mallorca and President of the Institut Mallorquí d’Afers Socials (IMAS), Guillermo Sánchez, and the Director General of Public Health of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Elena Esteban, agreed on the importance of vaccination to prevent possible complications. Also present at the launch of the campaign were the IMAS director of Social and Health Care, Rosa Llobera, as well as the director of Primary Care Nursing in Mallorca, Victoria Pascual.
‘Vaccination is key to preventing the effects of influenza and COVID-19 and its complications in the most vulnerable people, such as the elderly. That is why we at IMAS are very grateful to the Health Service of the Balearic Government for their efforts in coming to our centres to facilitate the injection of the vaccine. Getting vaccinated is a voluntary act, but it can be decisive in reducing the dangers of these diseases in the most fragile population, and for us the health of the elderly is a priority,’ said Minister Guillermo Sánchez.
In the same vein, the director general, Elena Esteban, stressed that ‘it is important that we not only focus on COVID-19 but that we protect ourselves against the flu to avoid major problems and having to run in the future, especially in the case of the most fragile groups. Flu is unpredictable, but what we can be confident of is that the vaccines we are administering contain the strains that protect against the virus that is circulating’.
Some two hundred people have also been vaccinated, including professionals and elderly people at the IMAS residences of Olms-San Miquel, in Palma, and Huialfàs, in sa Pobla, and in the coming days it is planned to inoculate the rest of the residences of the Consell de Mallorca (Llar d’Ancians and La Bonanova, in Palma; Son Caulelles, in Pòrtol, and Bartomeu Quetglas, in Felanitx). In total, just over a thousand vaccinations are expected to be administered to elderly people and staff at the residences of the Consell de Mallorca.
The Directorate General of Public Health has a total of 276,000 vaccines available for the entire population of the Balearic Islands. Initially, priority will be given to at-risk groups, such as people over the age of 65, whether or not they live in residential homes, children, people with certain pathologies or people who live with people at risk. Subsequently, vaccination will be extended to the general population.