Toronto Public Health will make H1N1 vaccinations available to the general public Thursday — four days ahead of schedule.

Ontario began vaccination programs Monday for health-care workers and certain priority groups, while other members of the public were originally to start receiving the vaccine next Monday.

"But because of the increasing circulation of H1N1 virus, today I'm announcing we've decided to move forward the start dates for our public clinics, which we originally announced as beginning next Monday, Nov. 2," said Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health.

The city will open the clinics to all on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, McKeown told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.

Clinics already popular

He encouraged those in priority groups — including pregnant women, children from six months to five years of age and people with underlying medical conditions — to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

People waited for hours at the Pickering town centre in order to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine. (CBC)

Members of the public have already turned out en masse at vaccination clinics around the GTA that are supposed to be offering shots only to health-care workers.

At one clinic in Pickering, people were expecting to wait four hours to get a shot on Tuesday evening.

The CBC's Stephanie Matteis said it was likely many would be turned away by the time that clinic closed at 8 p.m.

That appears to be a similar story across the rest of the country, where health officials spoke of pent-up demand leading to overcrowding of clinics.

Cases 'will likely increase'

Ontario's chief medical officer Dr. Arlene King, who was also at the news conference, said "the second wave of H1N1 flu is most definitely upon us," repeating comments she first made Friday.

So far, the virus has accounted for 29 deaths province-wide and 31 more have been hospitalized.

"It's only the end of October, and we're already seeing numbers that we usually experience at the peak of the flu season. The number of cases will likely increase as the season progresses," King told reporters.

The news conference came on the same day that Toronto Public Health announced a 13-year-old minor league hockey player from the Toronto area died after being infected by the H1N1 virus.

McKeown expressed his condolences to the family of Evan Frustaglia, who went from having minor cold symptoms last Friday to dying on Monday.

"The sad news of this boy's death is a reminder that while most flu illness is mild, severe illness and death is a part of the picture of this pandemic," McKeown said.

Ottawa approved the H1N1 vaccine last Wednesday and 722,000 doses of the vaccine arrived at Ontario's 36 local health units Friday. The province expects to receive a second shipment of vaccine this week.