Seasonal influenza campaign 2020 in the context of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an unprecedented public health experience in Chile

Abstract

In Chile, the Ministry of Health Immunization Department carries out the seasonal influenza vaccination campaign annually since 1982 in collaboration with the national health services, regional health offices, and primary healthcare centres. Aiming to prevent deaths and serious morbidity in high-risk groups and to preserve the integrity of healthcare services, the Seasonal Influenza campaign had been the largest implemented in Chile up to 2020, for in 2021 the vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2 is expected to become the largest implemented. Responding to local demographics and epidemiological changes, and taking into consideration new scientific evidence on vaccine safety and immunogenicity, influenza vaccines made available in Chile would increase annually as result of campaign planning. In 2020, however, the Influenza Campaign had to be re-planned while in progress due to the addition of new high-risk groups to be vaccinated according to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic health alert modification of the 6^th of March 2020. Over the course of three weeks, the Immunization Department managed to increase influenza vaccines doses available from 6,799,800 previously arranged to 8,480,325 and thus fulfil high-risk groups guaranteed access to the benefit of state funded vaccination.