Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:16:0
AHN Staff
Toronto, Ontario (AHN) - As the number of Canadians seeking protection against the Influenza A (H1N1) virus grows, provincial officials are exerting efforts to provide vaccination to all. Ontario, for instance, has doubled the number of swine flu immunization clinics for the priority groups.
Other measures taken include extending clinic hours and sending doses to family doctors to help in immunizing the public. Ontario chief medical officer Dr. Arlene Kng said with the number of H1N1 doubling, the number in the province of swine flu clinics would exceed 100.
Because of the high turnout of residents and the limited stock of the adjuvanted vaccine, King delayed the schedule vaccination of healthy people in the meantime. What worsened the situation was the dip in delivery from 720,000 weekly that Ontario used to receive from Ottawa, it has gone down to 189,500 adjuvanted and 86,800 unadjuvanted vaccine for pregnant women.
Health officials admitted they were surprised by the large turnout, which was a reverse of what they expected following survey results last week that less Canadians were interested in getting inoculated because of safety over the vaccine' safety.
After the Oct. 21 approval by Health Canada of the adjuvanted vaccine, Ontario started to send 700,000 H1N1 doses to the public health units across the province in a bid to begin inoculations by Oct. 26 for the high-risk groups.
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