H1N1 shots opened up to all in GTA

November 18, 2009

Theresa Boyle

Health Reporter

The H1N1 vaccination is being made available to everyone in the Greater Toronto Area just as some parts of the 905 are seeing a decrease in flu activity.

Toronto, York, Halton and Durham are inviting all residents – not just priority groups – to get the shot at mass vaccination clinics and many doctors' offices starting Wednesday while Peel is following suit on Thursday.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said the vaccine will now be open to everyone across the province, not just priority groups. The move is expected to be officially announced by Ontario health officials later today.

McGuinty added he plans to get the vaccine sometime this week, but says he’s not sure if he’ll do it in front of cameras, joking with reporters that he might faint.

Meantime, public health officials in both Peel and Halton believe their regions are past the peak of flu activity, the first indication that the GTA is starting to come out the other end of the pandemic.

"We are clearly past the peak level of activity. We are on the downturn," said Dr. Bob Nosal, Halton's medical officer of health.

It is one of the reasons the region wants to make the shot immediately available to more people, he said.

"There still is activity in Halton and that's another reason (to) offer it now. It really will be back down to sporadic cases in a couple of weeks," Nosal said, noting school absentee rates and emergency room visits are on the way down.

Extending the vaccine to the general public also puts an end to any question of queue jumping, although Health Minister Deb Matthews said she has been assured that players and coaches with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors did not jump the queue to get their H1N1 shots.

"We made an inquiry, they have responded with a letter. They have assured us in writing that only members of a priority group got the vaccine," Matthews told reporters Tuesday.

That suggests only Leafs or Raptors with underlying medical conditions, such as asthma, were vaccinated.

She said once the pandemic is over, she will look at how the vaccine rollout worked.

"There were issues far beyond the Leafs and Raptors of people who got the vaccine ahead of time," she said.

Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, noting there have so far been 71 H1N1-related deaths in the province, warned that overall there are still high rates of influenza in Ontario and more deaths and hospitalizations are expected.

She visited a clinic Tuesday at the North Toronto Memorial Community Centre, where there was no lineup for a shot.

"I hope we'll see busier clinics than we've had in the past few days. Our staff are prepared for it," said Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, adding that H1N1 is still circulating in the city.

Public health units recently received new shipments of the vaccine. Toronto has enough to last a week, McKeown said.

In York Region, medical officer of health Dr. Karim Kurji said he hopes those who come to clinics can get shots within half an hour. The region is working with the province to try to make the vaccine available in workplaces, he said.

With files from Robert Benzie and Canadian Press