The wave of people rushing to influenza clinics in the city is finally tapering off and the province says nearly 1 million Albertans have been immunized so far.
Alberta Health says that 1430 cases have been confirmed and nearly 1300 of those are the H1N1 strain.
There have been nine confirmed deaths in Alberta so far and flu cases continue to rise across the province.
Two clinics were opened in Calgary and demand for the shots has been high over the last few days.
“I thank Albertans for responding to the call to get the flu shot and helping to protect yourselves and your loved ones from the impacts of this year’s flu. We have been able to immunize nearly one million people during this immunization effort, including about 150,000 last week alone. Thanks to the efforts of our immunization teams we have been able to vaccinate more people to date this year than during all of last year,” said Health Minister Fred Horne
The shot is also available at doctors’ offices and pharmacies but many have run out of supply.
The province says it took delivery of an additional 65,000 doses of the vaccine on Tuesday and that it is working to distribute them effectively.
“Yesterday, Alberta received the last shipment of influenza vaccine on the planet. We took delivery of a shipment from Italy. This was a direct result of Dr. Talbot’s efforts to source as much vaccine as possible for our province and to make it available to Albertans,” said Horne.
Officials say any new shipments of the vaccine will be distributed to Alberta Health Services public clinics for easier distribution and centralized access.
The province says it has spent nearly $8 million on flu vaccines and that it costs about $17,000 to treat someone who is hospitalized with influenza.
“This year we invested $7.8 M to buy 1.2 million doses of vaccine. That’s enough to vaccinate about 28 percent of our population and it’s about five percent more vaccine than we bought last year,’ said Horne.
Updated flu numbers in the province as of January 7, 2014.
|
As of January 7, 2014 |
Alberta totals |
North Zone |
Edmonton Zone |
Central Zone |
Calgary Zone |
Southern Zone |
|
Immunizations |
985,024 |
|||||
|
Confirmed "A" cases |
1430 |
161 |
538 |
204 |
452 |
75 |
|
– H1N1 |
1287 |
134 |
475 |
188 |
419 |
71 |
|
– H3N2 |
14 |
0 |
9 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
|
– Not typed |
129 |
27 |
54 |
14 |
30 |
4 |
|
Deaths * |
9 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
|
Hospitalized * |
354 |
23 |
101 |
24 |
189 |
17 |
|
ICU * |
83 |
4 |
27 |
5 |
44 |
3 |
* Only for H1N1 and Not typed
Click HERE for clinic locations, dates and times.
(With files from Ina Sidhu)
