Toronto H1N1 clinics to stay open later
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 1:43 PM ET
CBC News
Toronto's 10 main H1N1 flu clinics will remain open later on Thursday and Friday. (Canadian Press)Toronto Public Health says it will not run out of vaccine at any of its 10 H1N1 clinics this week — and to emphasize the point they say they're going to keep their clinics open longer.
The city's public health office said Thursday it is extending the hours of the clinics for those people in high-risk groups and that un-adjuvanted vaccine, which is recommended only for pregnant women, is now available in limited quantities at all Toronto public health clinics.
Ontario's priority groups are:
- Pregnant women.
- Children from six months to five years of age.
- People who live with children under six months old.
- People under 65 with underlying medical conditions.
- Immuno-compromised people and those caring for them.
- People living in remote and isolated communities.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto's director of communicable disease control, says the clincs will also continue through the weekend.
"We want to make it easier for people in the priority groups to get vaccinated," said Yaffe. "Extending our hours and locations will also help us vaccinate everyone when more vaccine becomes available."
All 10 clinics in Toronto will be open until 9 p.m. during the week, two hours longer than originally scheduled.
On Saturday, they will be open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Five clinics will be open during those hours on Sunday as well.
The question of whether school kids will be the next in line for the shot remains up in the air — at least for the time being.
"The [provincial] ministry of health needs to know how much vaccine they will get and then they will be making the decision about when we go to the next group, which I understand they've indicated will be schoolchildren and first responders," she said.
Yaffee said 35,000 people in Toronto had been vaccinated at public health clinics by Tuesday, and that 265,000 doses had been sent out to local hospitals and physicians.
