On Friday afternoon - for six hours only - anyone in the Eastern and Central regions could get an H1N1 vaccine shot, regardless of age or medical history.

The announcement came along with news that the province is looking into six new deaths which may be related to the H1N1 flu.

The teaser treatment was designed to ease the pressure ahead of mass vaccinations which will start Monday, Health Minister Jerome Kennedy told the media.

"That will allow people who are very concerned about their health to get the vaccine," he said.

Today, people in the western region and Labrador-Grenfell will get their chance ahead of the Monday morning blitz.

The decision came after news that the province would receive 75,000 doses of the vaccine by today, with another large shipment on Wednesday.

Eastern Health is predicting it will be able to vaccinate 8,000 people per day.

Nearly as soon as the decision to vaccinate people was announced Friday, people began showing up, and during the evening there were lineups outside clinics.

The government hopes a numbering system it has instituted will quell the worst of the lineups.

Meanwhile, Kennedy also updated reporters on several investigations into H1N1 deaths and other issues that have come up in the past week.

The province is investigating the deaths of six people who tested positive for H1N1 either before or after they died.

"We're trying to be very thorough; there's some cases in which autopsies have been, or will be conducted," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said there is a distinction between people who died because of H1N1 versus those form whom it may have been a secondary factor.

The ages of the six new people who died are between 45 and 77-years-old.

It will still be a few weeks before everyone in the province can be vaccinated, but Kennedy said that starting Monday, the effort will be "massive."

On top of the two clinics in the metro area that have already been operating, health officials will open a location at MUN. The province also hopes to finish vaccinations of junior high students, and move on to the high schools.

Ontario and several other province had already opened up widespread vaccinations earlier this week, but Kennedy defended their approach.

"We made a conscious decision to vaccinate our children," Kennedy said. "I will not back down from that for one second."

jmcleod@thetelegram.com