Newfoundland and Labrador is refocusing its swine flu immunization plans Thursday, targeting people between the ages of 40 to 65 with chronic respiratory problems.

In addition, individuals under the age of 65 with compromised respiratory function due to a physical, neurological or muscular disorder (for example: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia, paraplegia, spina bifida) will also be eligible for vaccination Thursday.

"Because of what we're seeing coming, the people that we're seeing coming into the hospitals," said Provincial Health Minister Jerome Kennedy, "the age group that we're seeing coming into the hospital and in the ICU, we're essentially going to blitz this vaccination."

The ages of those who died H1N1-related deaths in the province this fall has ranged from 36 to 69. All but one of them had serious underlying medical conditions.

The province has been offering H1N1 vaccinations to schoolchildren and people at high risk of developing complications from influenza.

On Monday, Kennedy said that unless medical experts could convince him to change his plans, elementary school students from Grades 4 to 6 would be the next group to be immunized.

That must have happened, because Tuesday Kennedy said students in Grade 4 to 6 won't be vaccinated until Nov.16, and the list of people eligible for shots will be expanded Thursday to include people between the ages of 40 to 65 with chronic respiratory problems.

The province's chief medical officer said those aged 25 to 65 are more likely to become seriously ill.

"Those people, once they do get infected, they have more severe disease and are more likely to die from their illness and that's what we've seen across the country in the first wave," said Dr. Faith Stratton.

Individuals aged 25 to 40 with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis were eligible for vaccination this week.

So far, more than 100,000 of the province's 500,000 residents have been vaccinated.

Kennedy said Tuesday that the province has about 7,200 H1N1 shots on hand. Another 15,000 shots are expected to arrive Wednesday.

Vaccination against the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu is currently underway in the province for the following groups:

• Children between six months and five years of age.
• Parents or other primary caregivers of infants under six months.
• Parents or other primary caregivers of people up to the age of 24 who cannot be immunized.
• All pregnant women.
• Hospital in-patients less than 65 years of age with one or more chronic health conditions.
• School-age children from kindergarten to Grade 3.
• Individuals aged 25 to 40 with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis.
• Individuals undergoing active cancer treatment and transplant patients (including pre-transplant patients on a wait list and post-transplant patients in the last two years).