National guidelines recommend that pregnant women get the adjuvant-free version of the H1N1 vaccine.

Pregnant women in Ottawa will be able to get a shot of adjuvant-free flu vaccine beginning Thursday, and now have the option of getting vaccinated at a pregnant-women-only clinic.

In a press release sent out Thursday afternoon, Ottawa Public Health announced it will operate a clinic for pregnant women at the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital at 1967 Riverside Dr. on Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Non-pregnant members of the general public will not be admitted to the clinic.

Ottawa Public Health said will continue to offer both non-adjuvanted and adjuvanted vaccine to pregnant women at all of its clinics.

At a briefing Wednesday afternoon, the public health department confirmed it had received 5,500 doses of non-adjuvant H1N1 vaccine. That is the form of the vaccine recommended for pregnant women. It does not contain an adjuvant — a substance added to stimulate a stronger immune response to the vaccine.

Officials said the non-adjuvant vaccine would be available at the city's five permanent vaccination sites as early as Thursday. The public health department is also considering supplying the vaccine to obstetricians.

National guidelines recommend that pregnant women get the adjuvant-free version of the H1N1 vaccine because there has been little research done on the use of adjuvants in vaccines during pregnancy.

The H1N1 vaccine targets the strain of H1N1 influenza A virus responsible for the current swine flu pandemic.

ER visitor restrictions

Meanwhile, starting Thursday, all hospital emergency rooms in Ottawa are imposing visitor restrictions, saying that only sick people and one essential caregiver should come to an emergency room for treatment.

That was already the policy at CHEO and the Queensway Carleton Hospital, but it's been extended to the Montfort Hospital and the Ottawa Hospital.

The total number of confirmed swine flu cases in Ottawa has now reached 213, though public health officials say most of those have been mild.

Vaccination clinics continue

As far as the regular vaccination clinics go, the health department continued to vaccinate people in all the other high-priority groups Thursday.

That includes children between the ages of six months and five years, people up to age 65 with chronic, underlying health issues, people who live with infants under the age of six months and health-care workers.

The five permanent clinics were up and running and staff were handing out wristband-passes for vaccinations later in the day. Among those clinics, Tom Brown Arena, the Orléans Client Service Centre and the Kanata Recreation Complex were all at capacity before noon.

The Vanier-Richelieu clinic reported having 300 wristbands available at 2:30 p.m., and the clinic at 100 Constellation Cres. had 200 wristbands left at 2:40 p.m.

There were also two temporary clinics at Jim Durrell Arena, which stopped giving out wristbands mid-morning, and at the Ron Kolbus Centre, 102 Greenview Ave., which was down to fewer than 200 wristbands by 1 p.m.