Edmonton / iNews880.com
10/31/2009
All H1N1 clinics in Alberta have been cancelled immediately. The Alberta government cites the national shortage of vaccine as its reason.
"Our pandemic plan was to vaccinate as many people as possible, in as short amount of time as possible." Dr. Gerry Predy, senior medical officer of health, says the province has decided to change its approach and start giving the vaccinations only to high-risk groups.
He says that includes pregnant women, children from six months of age to under five years of age, people in remote and isolated communities and health care workers.
"We had to shut down the lines early at virtually all the clinics we were running today, and I think the message got out that there was gonna be a shortage of vaccine and naturally it caused some degree of anxiety and people were really pressing to get through the clinics, it was an unfortunate situation but again I just wanna reiterate the message that people should not panic just be calm, there will be enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone who wants it."
They'll take the rest of the weekend to figure out how to distribute the vaccine to only those who need it. "We certainly need to know how we will reach the targeted groups. If it's by age, we can announce that only children of a certain age can come to a certain clinic. Our staff have to be able to look at all this issues, and I don't have the answers at this time."
Predy says provincial officials do not regret their initial decision to go with mass immunization available to all people. But he says the national shortage of vaccine dictates the need to do targeted immunization for the immediate future.
An announcement is expected on Monday or Tuesday as to how and when pregnant women, small children and other people most at risk, will be immunized.
Dr. Predy was adamant that people should not panic and there will be enough vaccine for everyone that wants it, once the situation is sorted out.(sj,rw.blb)
Listen to the announcement for yourself. (Best viewed in Firefox)
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