Labrador’s health officer says there’s no need to panic over the recent announcement of a reduced amount of vaccine being made available to the province.

Dr. Muna Ar-Rushdi said Newfoundland and Labrador would receive its entire allotment of vaccine to immunize the entire population.

Over the weekend a press release issued by the Department of Health and Community Services stated that due to the reduced amount of vaccine from the Federal Government the H1N1 vaccinations would be limited to high-risk groups, which included children six months to 59 months, people five years of age up to and including 24 years of age with chronic conditions and pregnant women in the second half of their pregnancy, parents or other primary care providers of children under the age of six months and of immunocompromised children and young adults up to and including 24 years of age who cannot themselves be vaccinated.

Dr. Ar-Rushdi said the province is receiving regular but limited allotments of vaccine in its shipments from the manufacturer, which is a Canada wide situation.

She said what Labrador-Grenfell Health has to determine, based on the amount of vaccine received, is which groups within its region it can vaccinate with the given amounts.

“Everyone will get vaccinated, but because of the small amount of vaccine being made available, at this time we can only do certain groups, which are determined by the amount of vaccine, where they are located, where the nurses are, and by the province and health authorities trying to maintain a consistent approach on how they deliver the vaccine."

editor@thelabradorian.ca