Saskatchewan’s limited remaining supply of flu vaccine will be saved for children under five years of age and pregnant women.
The province’s supply of 280,000 doses has run out and additional vaccine supplies are limited, a provincial media release stated Friday.
“While more vaccine is expected to arrive in the coming days, we feel it is now necessary to focus our vaccination efforts on those at highest risk from H1N1,” said Saskatchewan’s Deputy Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Denise Werker.
Seven people have died of influenza-related deaths in Saskatchewan, 32 have been hospitalized in intensive care units and 618 cases of the flu have been confirmed so far this season.
H1N1, the predominant flu strain circulating the province, poses the greatest risk to those who were born after 2009, when the strain first surfaced. Children under five years of age and pregnant women are most susceptible to the virus.
About 25 per cent of residents in the province have received the influenza vaccination since the fall.
A shipment of 12,000 doses of a nasal-spray vaccine called FluMist is expected to arrive in the province next week.
The nasal-spray vaccine is typically administered to children ages two to nine and can’t be given to pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems.
Werker said mass immunization clinics that were planned for next week have been cancelled.
CTV News will update this story — specifically in relation to how it will affect the Saskatoon Health Region’s Saturday clinic — as more information becomes available.
