With the H1N1 vaccine available to all who want it, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has had an increase in the number of attendees at community flu clinics.
Here is some information from the past week.
Second doses for children
Healthy children 3 to 9 years of age need only one shot of the H1N1 vaccine.
Children 3 to 9 years of age with chronic disease will need to get a second shot.
Public Health was starting to offer the shots in 14 secondary school clinics. Those clinics are limited to staff and students of each school. The regular community clinic was scheduled to start again Nov. 30.
Public Health now has the unadjuvanted vaccine which is approved by the Public Health Agency of Canada for use in healthy youth. It will be the primary vaccine offered at the secondary school flu clinics. The adjuvanted vaccine will be available for students with chronic disease and those who request it.
The number of vaccines administered through Public Health immunization clinics in the three communities was 16,700.
The number of doses provided to those area hospitals was 3,160.
The number of doses provided to community physicians was 28,080.
The number of doses to other Vaccine Delivery Agents was 4,370.
The number of doses on-hand was 26,367.
And, the number of community physicians currently acting as H1N1 vaccine delivery agents was 131.
Public Health also delivered another 4,300 doses at clinics on Wednesday and Thursday in Guelph, Fergus, Orangeville, Grand Valley, and Palmerston.
Other preparations
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has purchased more than 200 additional hospital ventilators to prepare for a potential increase in critical care patient volumes requiring mechanical ventilation.
Those ventilators are now being pre-positioned at hospitals across Ontario for rapid deployment to manage a surge in flu cases.
