In effort to staunch the flow of sick people to hospitals, Health Minister Jerome Kennedy announced Tuesday that later this week the government will commence vaccinating people under 65 with chronic respiratory illness.
As the province moves to distribute the thousands of new doses of vaccine being shipped in today, it's also getting ready to inoculate schoolchildren in Grades 4-6.
Kennedy said the province will attempt to "blitz" those high-risk people under 65 years old because those same people are responsible for the lion's share of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and other strains to the health-care system.
The vaccinations will start Thursday and stretch into Saturday or Sunday. On Monday, health-care workers will turn their focus to schoolchildren.
During Kennedy's daily H1N1 media update, Dr. Faith Stratton, chief medical officer of health, said 40 more people have been admitted to hospital with influenza-like symptoms.
Of those, 10 people were put in the intensive care unit, and four were placed on ventilators.
In total, the system currently has 129 people hospitalized with influenza symptoms, 35 of which are in intensive care and 15 of which are on ventilators.
Stratton said the trend across the province seems to be continuing, with the bulk of cases moving from west to east. She said almost all of the new hospitalizations are in the eastern region.
Federal failure
During his comments to the media, Kennedy also had some harsh words for the federal government.
He said he was "frustrated" by delays and shortages of the H1N1 vaccine the province is receiving from Health Canada.
"I'm frustrated to the point that we thought we were getting larger amounts of vaccine," Kennedy said. "The reality is that most of the provinces find themselves in the same situation."
Kennedy said he's proud they've managed to vaccinate a comparatively large and diverse swath of the population.
At this point, more than 20 per cent of the population has been inoculated.
As production ramps up, the province hopes to start receiving as much as 57,000 doses of the vaccine starting Nov. 18. Kennedy said with those kinds of numbers, it wouldn't be long before most of the population could be taken care of.
"We're a ways yet from being out of this problem, but we're working slowly," Kennedy said.
jmcleod@thetelegram.com
Inoculation 'blitz' planned for Thursday
Health Minister Jerome Kennedy and Dr. Faith Stratton, chief medical officer of health, speak to reporters Tuesday afternoon about the H1N1 pandemic. Photo by James McLeod/The Telegram
- Published on November 11th, 2009
- Published on July 1st, 2010
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James McLeod
The Telegram
In effort to staunch the flow of sick people to hospitals, Health Minister Jerome Kennedy announced Tuesday that later this week the government will commence vaccinating people under 65 with chronic respiratory illness.
As the province moves to distribute the thousands of new doses of vaccine being shipped in today, it's also getting ready to inoculate schoolchildren in Grades 4-6.
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Comments
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- Derek
- - July 2nd, 2010 at 13:23:42
When the time comes, there should be an enquiry as to why, when we are supposedely one of the most progressive countries in the world, we don't have an adequate supply of vaccine manufactured by now. And then those responsible should be strung up from the Peace Tower.
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- Robert
- - July 2nd, 2010 at 13:20:51
Nasty Nate - I saw the irony as well. Squeaky Jerome takes a swipe at the Federal Government stating that he was ''frustrated'' by the delays and shortages - yet his own department suspends vaccinations for a holiday. I also noted Kennedy's snake language that the numbers of vaccinations coming mean that it wouldn't be long before the population ''could'' be taken care of. ''Could'' doesn't mean that we will.
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- Nasty
- - July 2nd, 2010 at 13:10:12
Thursday. I guess this pandemic is not as bad as they would like people to think by the amount of downtime they are forcing onto the schedule. If this was as bad as they would like everyone to believe, would you not think that they would have clinics everyday? Illness takes no holidays, but we sure do.
I guess the buck stopped stopping with Danny Williams since Jerry wants you all to blame Ottawa for the delay they have created by holding a holiday as well as being slow on the draw with deliveries. What a farce. -
- Derek
- - July 1st, 2010 at 20:08:50
When the time comes, there should be an enquiry as to why, when we are supposedely one of the most progressive countries in the world, we don't have an adequate supply of vaccine manufactured by now. And then those responsible should be strung up from the Peace Tower.
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- Robert
- - July 1st, 2010 at 20:03:55
Nasty Nate - I saw the irony as well. Squeaky Jerome takes a swipe at the Federal Government stating that he was ''frustrated'' by the delays and shortages - yet his own department suspends vaccinations for a holiday. I also noted Kennedy's snake language that the numbers of vaccinations coming mean that it wouldn't be long before the population ''could'' be taken care of. ''Could'' doesn't mean that we will.
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- Nasty
- - July 1st, 2010 at 19:46:01
Thursday. I guess this pandemic is not as bad as they would like people to think by the amount of downtime they are forcing onto the schedule. If this was as bad as they would like everyone to believe, would you not think that they would have clinics everyday? Illness takes no holidays, but we sure do.
I guess the buck stopped stopping with Danny Williams since Jerry wants you all to blame Ottawa for the delay they have created by holding a holiday as well as being slow on the draw with deliveries. What a farce.
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