It was a steady stream of activity at the Bethesda Pentecostal Church on MacDonald Drive Monday following Friday’s announcement the public could receive the vaccine due to the influx of some 75,000 doses received last week. — Photo by Joe Gibbons/The Telegram

There was good news and bad news on the H1N1 front Monday.

During his daily update on the swine flu pandemic, Health Minister Jerome Kennedy said the good news is that lots more people in the province have gotten the H1N1 vaccine in recent days.

"The 75,000 vaccines that we received last week have gone out into the population and will be into people's arms by at least the end of this week," he said.

The bad news, however, is so many people are lining up at clinics, at least four in the central region have already run out of their supply of the vaccine.

Clinics in Springdale, Botwood, Grand Falls-Windsor and St. Alban's closed Monday after distributing as many of the shots as each had.

Kennedy told reporters some vaccine from other areas of the province will be shipped to the Central region so some of those clinics could reopen Wednesday.

"Obviously the frustrating part for some people is that as clinics run out of vaccine, we have to wait for the next shipment (from Health Canada) which we're hoping to receive later this week," the minister said.

He also had more bad news - two more deaths were reported over the weekend.

A 40-year-old woman from the Labrador West region was confirmed as the eighth person to die from swine flu in this province.

"The second death is currently under review and will be one of those looked at by (the province's chief medical examiner, Dr. Simon) Avis's," Kennedy said.

That means seven additional deaths are being investigated as possibly linked to the H1N1 virus.

Kennedy said an update on Avis' investigation will be given in the next day or two.

He also sent condolences to the families and friends of the people who have died.

The province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Faith Stratton, also updated reporters on the latest numbers on hospital admissions.

"The numbers are going down," she said. "We feel that we've started to plateau."

As of 8 a.m. Monday, 10 additional people were admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms; two of those people were on intensive care units (ICU), with one of them on a ventilator.

The total current numbers as of Monday morning were 75 hospitalizations, with 25 in ICU and 18 on ventilators.

"People who are very ill, who are ending up in intensive care units, tend to be there for a long time. That's why (the total) number is continuing to be quite high," she said.

But Stratton hopes the numbers will start to come down as people are released from hospital and fewer people are admitted.

Kennedy said 139,000 people in the province had been vaccinated as of Saturday, and that number could be as high as 220,000 by the end of this week.

However, the minister said it could take another two or three weeks before everyone in the province who wants the vaccine is inoculated.

dbartlett@thetelegram.com