Another 70,000 doses of flu vaccine are expected in pharmacies in mid-November, Dr Kremena Parmakova, head of the communicable diseases surveillance department at the Ministry of Health, told reporters.

No injectable vaccines are on sale yet, but some of the new delivery will be injections. The ministry is also waiting for confirmation of another 30,000 doses at the end of November.

In all, 546,000 doses are set aside for the two national programmes, one for children and one for adults. Another 129,000 are for sale in pharmacies. So far, 75,000 nasal doses and 150,000 injectable doses have arrived, and another 50,000 are due tomorrow.

Parmakova said November is the best month to get the vaccine, because flu epidemics hit at the end of December and in January. Flu activity is still at a baseline level, so the next few weeks are the best time to get vaccinated. She said demand for the vaccines will show how the campaign goes.

She explained that every year some doses are thrown away because they were stored wrongly, a patient did not turn up, or for other reasons.

The ministry will try to discuss with GPs how many vaccines to order for next year under the two national programmes. That would allow orders to go to manufacturers earlier.