Lineups long for flu shots in P.E.I.

People lined up two hours in advance of the opening of the swine flu vaccine in Charlottetown Monday.

On the first day of H1N1 immunization in P.E.I. and most of the rest of the country, people started lining up outside the Sherwood Business Centre in Charlottetown at 7 a.m. The clinic opened at 9 a.m., and by 10:30 up to 600 people had received their shots.

"As a person with a compromised immune system, I have been told by my infectious specialist in Moncton, 'Get the flu shot as soon as it was available,'" said George Clark Dunning, who is HIV positive.

"We've been listed as people with chronic conditions to be in the first wave of people to get the vaccine, so the sooner I get it the sooner I can start feeling a little bit more secure about my own health."

In the queue was P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz and his wife, Kate Ellis Ghiz, who are on the list because they have a four-month-old daughter at home. Ghiz's wife, a doctor, also qualifies to receive the vaccine this week.

"This is something that our chief health officer says is a good thing to get and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to really help reduce the chances of this becoming a pandemic," said Ghiz.

"I'd rather in six months or a year's time, people look back and say, 'Oh the media overreacted or the government overreacted,' rather than it be the other way around where we didn't do enough … I think it's better we're safe rather than sorry."

The program is being rolled out over the next four to six weeks at sites across the province, with the government laying out priorities for who gets the shot first.

During this first week, the H1N1 vaccine will be provided to the following groups:

• Health-care workers.
• Household contacts of children younger than six months.
• Children six months of age up to school entry.
• People with chronic conditions (under the age of 65).
• Care providers of people who are immune compromised.
• First Nations and aboriginals.

Monday's clinics are being held in Charlottetown at the Sherwood Business Centre; in Summerside at Credit Union Place; in West Prince at the Business Park in Bloomfield; in the lower level of the Souris Hospital and at King's County Memorial Hospital in Montague.

The vaccine is free.

The provincial government website contains a complete list of times and locations of upcoming clinics.