Health and Community Services
October 30, 2009

Limited Vaccine Requires Important Changes
to H1N1 Vaccine Criteria for Coming Week

The Department of Health and Community Services is advising the public that due to a reduced amount of vaccine available to the province by the Federal Government in the coming week, H1N1 vaccinations will be limited to the following high-risk groups:

�        Children six months up to 59 months (up to fifth birthday)

�        People five years of age up to and including 24 years of age with chronic conditions

�        Pregnant women in the second half of their pregnancy (20 to 40 weeks)

�We received information late today from the Federal Government advising that our vaccine allocation for the coming week would be much less than anticipated,� said the Honourable Jerome Kennedy, Minister of Health and Community Services. �Based on this, we have had to reduce the high-risk groups targeted for clinics for the coming week to ensure that the limited amount of vaccine we have available to the province is offered to those who need it most. Ethically, this is the right thing for us to do.�

The restricted criteria apply to clinics in all regions of the province and will be strictly enforced.

October 31 - Update on H1N1 Mass Immunization Clinics
November 1 - High Risk Groups Expanded for Immunization Clinics

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Media contact:
Tara Power
Communications Manager
Department of Health and Community Services
709-729-2888, 727-5953
tarapower@gov.nl.ca

2009 10 30                                                    7:45 p.m.