RIYADH: The Ministry of Health (MOH) intensified its nationwide campaign against seasonal flu on Thursday by introducing vaccination centers in public places for 10 days.

The centers will stay open from 5 to 11 p.m. at Sahara Mall in Riyadh, Universal Plaza in Jeddah, Mall of Dhahran and Taif complex in Taif.

Two weeks ago, Abdulaziz bin Saeed, deputy minister of public health, launched the campaign in Riyadh to cover at least 1.5 million people in all parts of the Kingdom.

Speaking about the second phase of the vaccination campaign, which was launched on Thursday, Health Ministry spokesman Faisal Al-Zahrani said there will be separate vaccination centers for men and women and that they will be supervised by the respective directorate of the health regions in the Kingdom.

The general supervisor of the National Program, Musallam Abu Hassan, said the ministry focuses on vaccination on vulnerable categories of people who include pregnant women, those suffering from ailments such as diabetes and heart problems, renal and hypertension patients and children aged six months to five years. The flu vaccine will prevent the seasonal influenza too, he said.

This year, he said, flu shots were already given to 90 percent of the health officials. Last year, only 20 percent was covered among the health care personnel, he added.

According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu vaccines cause antibodies to develop in the body about two weeks after being given the dose and that they provide protection against infection with the viruses that are in the vaccine.

The seasonal flu vaccine protects against the influenza viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season. Traditional flu vaccines, called “trivalent” vaccines, protect against three flu viruses — influenza A (H1N1) virus, influenza A (H3N2) virus and influenza B virus.

There are also flu vaccines against four flu viruses called “quadrivalent” vaccines. These vaccines protect against the same viruses as the trivalent vaccine and an additional B virus.