A boy gets his shot of swine flu vaccine at a Vancouver clinic Monday. (CBC)The federal government is preparing to ship 1.8 million more doses of the H1N1 vaccine to the provinces.
"There are now over six million doses available," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday. "There will be another 1.8 million doses available next week.
"The pace of dose availability in this country is ahead of any other country in the world. The provinces' resources are being stretched to the maximum to ensure this is being rolled out as quickly as possible."
Supply of the swine flu vaccine stalled last week after GlaxoSmithKline switched from making the adjuvanted version of the vaccine — which contains a booster compound — to making special unadjuvanted batches for pregnant women.
Paul Lucas, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Canada, attributed the blip in production to the complexity of the manufacturing.
"The manufacturing process for a vaccine like this is extremely complex. Once we've manufactured it, it goes through a period of quality control," Lucas told reporters on Wednesday. "And we get to the other end of that quality control, and we have to ensure that it's absolutely the highest quality.
"And sometimes it's very difficult to predict. And you get variability from week to week as to what's going to actually come out the other end of quality control. And that's what happened last week."
Cost tops $400 million
Meanwhile, according to the 2009-10 supplementary estimates, it will cost Ottawa and the provinces $400 million for the H1N1 vaccine, not including related costs.
The federal government is covering 60 per cent of the cost for 50.4 million doses, while the provinces and territories will foot the rest of the bill. The government ordered the dose amount when it didn't know whether people would require one shot or two.
The estimates were tabled Wednesday by Treasury Board president Vic Toews.
Ottawa will spend $78 million more on related costs incurred by Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. As well, the government's public awareness campaign cost $4.5 million.
More people are falling sick with flu symptoms across Canada, increasing demands on health-care services.
In London, Ont., three people reportedly died with swine flu, including a two-month-old baby.
Health officials in British Columbia confirmed Wednesday three more deaths from swine flu, raising the province's total number of fatalities to 15. All the victims had pre-existing medical conditions and none were children.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, health authorities reported a second H1N1-related death. A 40-year-old man died from complications related to an H1N1 influenza infection.
He had multiple underlying medical conditions and was in an intensive-care unit for several days before he died.
As of Tuesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported 101 deaths related to the H1N1 virus, six more than it reported on Oct. 29.
Ontario has experienced 37 flu-related deaths since spring, including four this week. Since April, 707 Ontarians have needed hospital care and 108 remain in hospital.
In B.C., 162 people have been admitted to hospital with flu in the past week, compared with 200 from April to October.
Family doctors in the province are seeing more patients than usual for this time of year showing flu-like illness. B.C. Children's Hospital has set up a flu assessment clinic to try to relieve the strain on the health-care system.
In Kitimat in northwestern B.C., all three elementary schools and a high school have closed either because children are sick or because parents are concerned. The town's mayor expressed concerns about delays in opening a clinic offering H1N1 shots for high-risk people.
Hospital care in Sudbury
In Sudbury, Ont., 47 people have been admitted to hospital with flu, including nine people who are on ventilators. The city has a population of 158,000.
Sudbury has cancelled elective surgeries, which some hospitals from Vancouver to Montreal are also doing.
Hospital admissions in Ontario have increased "measurably" over the last month, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Arlene King, said Wednesday.
"Hospitals are coping well with this surge. We do not have any reports of hospitals being overwhelmed, however, some primary-care settings and emergency departments are very busy and that's why special flu assessment centres have been set up across the province."
Health officials in Ontario want to give out 2.2 million doses of H1N1 vaccine by the end of the week. About 4.3 million people in the province are considered at high priority for receiving the shot.
In most cases, people with flu symptoms can recover at home.
With files from The Canadian Press
