Compared to other European countries, there are very few elderly people vaccinated against influenza and Covid-19 in Latvia, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, writes Latvijas Avīze.
In the 2023-2024 season, the vaccination coverage against influenza among residents aged over 65 in Latvia was only 15.8%. In the 2024-2025 season, the vaccination rate among residents over 60 years old was 14.8%, while in Denmark, for example, it was 76%.
As noted by Ilze Udre, head of the communication department at the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDPC), elderly people were even more passive in getting vaccinated against Covid-19 - in the epidemic season of 2024-2025, only 3.2% of residents over 65 were vaccinated. In comparison, in Sweden, the vaccination coverage among people aged 60 and older was 53%, and in Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Portugal, and Belgium, it was over 30%.
The National Health Service reports that in 2025, Latvia received 194,400 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, but only 20,847 were used. In the second half of 2026, another 158,900 doses of the vaccine are planned to be received; however, people are likely to remain as passive as before. CDPC data for the period from January to September 2025 show that 48 people died from Covid-19.
"These are patients who have confirmed Covid-19 and who died specifically from it. It should be noted that Covid-19 can cause thrombosis and stroke. Patients are admitted to the hospital with these diagnoses, and they are also found to have Covid-19. If a person dies in such cases, Covid-19 is not listed as the cause of death. Also, for example, if there was a cancer disease and the test was positive, no one writes that the person died from Covid-19. The data presented concerns those patients whose lives were cut short specifically by Covid-19 - mainly elderly people with poor health conditions," explains Uga Dumpis, head of the infection surveillance service at Stradins Hospital.
At the same time, the CDPC database has not recorded any cases of death directly from influenza. As Dumpis noted, cases of death are usually associated with complications caused by influenza - most often, these are heart attacks and strokes.
