Health coins give rise to cheers! The number of influenza vaccinations reaches a six-year high, and the number of COVID-19 vaccines also increases by 30%

Director of Disease Control and Prevention Luo Yijun pointed out that this year’s health coins have effectively promoted vaccine encouragement.

Publicly funded influenza and COVID-19 vaccines have been launched in October, and the "Health Coin" policy has also been launched simultaneously. Director of Disease Control and Prevention Luo Yijun said that this year's health coin policy has effectively boosted incentives, allowing the pneumococcal vaccine completion rate among the elderly to meet the standard two months ahead of schedule, and also allowing influenza vaccine incentives to hit a six-year high. The second phase of publicly funded influenza and COVID-19 vaccines will also be open to adults over 50 years old on November 2.

Luo Yijun explained that due to the health currency policy-driven encouragement, the number of publicly-funded and self-funded influenza and new crown pneumonia vaccines for people over 18 years old this year has increased by 11 to 35% compared with the same period last year. Among them, 4.008 million people have been vaccinated with publicly funded influenza vaccines since the launch of the vaccine on October 1, setting a new high since the start of the second phase of the flu vaccine in 2021. There are also 288,000 people who have rolled up their sleeves to receive the self-funded influenza vaccine, a significant increase of 70% from the 169,000 people in the same period last year.

In addition, Luo Yijun pointed out that a total of 1.18 million people have been vaccinated with the publicly funded COVID-19 vaccine this season, an increase of 32% over the same period last year. In addition to driving the "Left and Right New" encouragement, the health currency also prompted people to receive the publicly funded pneumococcal vaccine. From October 1 to 26, a total of 104,000 people were vaccinated, reaching 3.5 times the number of people vaccinated in the same period in September. The complete vaccination rate of the pneumococcal vaccine among the elderly reached the 40% target two months ahead of schedule.

Luo Yijun reminded that the influenza is currently expected to be out of the epidemic period next week, and the second phase of publicly funded influenza and COVID-19 vaccines will also be open to adults over 50 years old on November 2. The CDC has purchased an additional 300,000 doses of influenza vaccines and 174,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. It is expected that vaccinations will be available to the public in early November. Eligible people are encouraged to seize the opportunity to "take care of their health" and "earn money."

Li Jialin, deputy director of the Epidemic Center of the CDC, said that last week there were 85 new severe cases of influenza and 28 deaths, while there were 8 new local severe cases and 4 local deaths of COVID-19.

Health coins have boosted public support for influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, and the number of vaccinations among people over 65 years old has increased compared with the same period last year.

Lin Leng, an epidemic prevention physician at the CDC, said that severe cases of COVID-19 include a central woman in her 40s who has neurological-related diseases, is bedridden for a long time, and has not been vaccinated against COVID-19 this season. She developed fever, cough, difficulty breathing and other symptoms in early October. When she went to the emergency department, she had obvious asthma and low blood oxygen. She tested positive for COVID-19, and her chest X-ray showed bilateral pneumonia, so she was admitted to the isolation ward for treatment.

Lin Leng pointed out that the blood test of the case showed that the white blood cells were normal but the inflammatory index was elevated, and there were electrolyte abnormalities such as hyponatremia and hypokalemia. During the hospitalization, he received oxygen, antibiotics, antiviral drugs, steroids and other treatments, and was diagnosed with COVID-19 complicated by respiratory failure. The condition continued to worsen, and he passed away a week after being hospitalized, and the epidemic investigation found that several family members living with him also had upper respiratory tract symptoms.