Dr. Richard Lessard, Montreal's director of public health, says not enough Montrealers are being vaccinated. (CBC)

Not enough people in the Montreal region are getting vaccinated against the swine flu, says Dr. Richard Lessard, the city's director of public health.

Wednesday was the first day the H1N1 vaccine was offered to members of the general public in eight regions of the province, including Montreal.

So far 500,000 Montrealers have been vaccinated since the campaign began a month ago, but Lessard said health care officials hope to vaccinate three times that number — or about 80 per cent of the city's population of 1.8 million.

So far in the region, only one priority group has reached that target. Lessard said 89 per cent of health-care workers received the vaccine.

Lessard speculated that is because they have witnessed the potential effects of the flu.

Though fewer people are falling ill, Lessard said the number of people seriously ill in hospital in Montreal has grown from 154 last week to 214 on Wednesday.

Lessard said the average hospital stay due to the H1N1 flu is between 14 and 21 days.

The drop in the overall number of cases should not dissuade people from getting the vaccine, said Montreal health agency president David Levine.

"If a lot of people are dying, and I'm scared, I want to get vaccinated," Levine said. "But if not a lot of people are dying, then I don't need to bother — is probably the most dangerous thing to do."

Getting vaccinated against the flu is also a social responsibility, Levine said

"What we're saying now, is go with your family, go with your parents, go with your children and get vaccinated," Levine said. "You're protecting not only yourself, but all the people around you."

Over the lunch hour Wednesday, there was virtually no wait at the vaccination centre at the city’s Palais des congrès, the CBC’s Loreen Pindera reported from the scene.

Province-wide record broken

While officials in Montreal said the vaccination campaign is going slowly, provincial officials said a record was broken Tuesday for the total number of people vaccinated in one day.

More than 106,000 people were vaccinated across Quebec, said the province’s chief public health officer Dr. Alain Poirier.

"I am just happy that Quebecers understand the message that we're delivering," Poirier said.

He said the arrival of more doses next week means the province can continue to open more vaccination centres.

Next week, Poirier said the province will receive 1.3 million doses of the vaccine — 200,000 more than this week.

He said officials would continue to send the message that getting vaccinated is necessary.

"Fifty per cent of [people] hospitalized were under 20, and of that number most of them are in good health," Porier said. "If you are hospitalized, it means that it is a serious disease. Usually you don't get hospitalized for flu — so this is in an indication that we are not protected even if we are in good health."

Poirier said he was "very happy" to now be eligible for the vaccine, and said he looked forward to getting it in the coming days.

Poirier also confirmed it is possible the number of cases of the H1N1 virus in the province has hit its peak.

"We are not seeing the growth [in the number of cases], that we've seen over the past two weeks," Porier said.

However he admitted there could still be some fluctuations in the number of cases in the future.

Insurance companies criticized

Michel C. Doré, Quebec’s deputy public security minister, was critical of insurance companies he said are still requiring medical certificates from workers off sick with swine flu.

He said the government set an example for employers by not requiring a doctor’s note for absences of less than seven days to help avoid putting pressure on the health-care system.

Doré said special flu clinics, staffed by nurses, have been set up to help reduce the burden on hospitals and medical clinics.

“A paper signed by a nurse from a flu clinic is in our opinion sufficient to justify an absence … related to flu symptoms,” Doré said.