N.L. H1N1 vaccine may run out on weekend: Kennedy
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 6:04 PM NT
CBC News
Newfoundland and Labrador's Health Minister said Friday he believes it's unlikely the province's current supply of H1N1 vaccine will last through the weekend.
Jerome Kennedy told reporters during his daily update on the H1N1 situation that mass immunization clinics may have to close in the next few days, depending on the availability of vaccine.
Kennedy said that in the St. John's area, schoolchildren in kindergarten to Grade 3 will continue to receive inoculations on Saturday at the region's two mass immunization clinics. Inoculations for students in that age group began in schools across the province on Thursday.
"This may cause some inconvenience for some of the parents, but we felt it best where we have vaccine available that we can utilize it as quickly as possible," he said.
Faith Stratton, the province's chief medical officer, said it is unclear right now if the clinics will continue on Sunday.
"We were hoping to give the nurses a rest on Sunday thinking that most of the vaccine would already have been given and we would actually run out of vaccine," she said.
Over the next few days, health officials will weigh which risk groups will get access to the next shipment of vaccine on Wednesday.
Latest numbers released by the province show there are 111 people in the province currently in hospital with symptoms of the H1N1 flu. Thirty-one people are in intensive care while 15 of them are on ventilators to help them breathe.
