Health authorities in big push for flu jabs
More Kiwis are being made eligible for free flu vaccinations as health authorities push to get vaccination rates up ahead of what’s expected to be an especially bad flu season.
Health authorities are using lessons learned from the Covid19 response as they look to protect the most vulnerable.
While those 65 and over still have free access, that age has been dropped to 55 for Māori and Pasifika, the Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre (NRHCC) said on Tuesday.
Children aged four and under, as well as those who have underlying health conditions are all eligible. NRHCC chief clinical officer vaccinations Dr Anthony Jordan said it was especially important to get a flu shot this year since people haven’t been exposed to a real flu season for the past two years as New Zealand shut its borders while managing Covid-19.
‘‘We won’t have the same strong, natural immunity that we may have seen in other years when the flu has been circulating,’’ Jordan said.
‘‘This makes us much more reliant on vaccine-induced immunity to keep people safe.’’
Just across the ditch in New South Wales, cases of influenza more than tripled between March and April, as experts warn the state is headed for a ‘‘significant flu epidemic’’.
Influenza infections there have risen well above prepandemic levels, with the state recording 1237 flu cases up to April 25.
There were 341 cases identified in March.
In the year before the pandemic, about 2500 people required hospital care across Auckland’s three district health boards with influenza.
Anything like that while New Zealand is still in the midst of an Omicron outbreak would put the health system under added stress, Jordan said, so getting vaccinated was the best thing people could do.