More than 350 H1N1 influenza vaccine shots were administered Monday during the first of the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s clinics in the Comox Valley.

The health authority held one vaccination clinic in Courtenay and two in Cumberland after receiving doses of the H1N1 vaccine last week.

Nurses gave 354 H1N1 vaccinations in Courtenay, while 499 H1N1 shots and 400 seasonal influenza shots were given in Cumberland, according to the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA).

“The turnouts have been good,” said Dr. Charmaine Enns, the medical health officer for North Vancouver Island. “We’ve been getting the vaccine in allotments, and that’s why, these first couple weeks especially, we’re asking those people to come who are in high-risk groups.”

VIHA has identified the high-risk groups as people younger than 65 who have chronic health conditions, pregnant women and people living in remote and isolated settings.

VIHA had to act quickly once the H1N1 vaccine was approved and had to convert its pre-planned seasonal influenza vaccine clinics into H1N1 clinics, noted Enns.

“They’ve gone well,” she said of the local clinics. “It’s been a challenge because we only found out about the vaccine being provided last week. We have been and will be in a transition time this week. It will be better next week. We had to respond as soon as we had the vaccine to make it available.”

While VIHA is receiving the vaccine in allotments, it will be able to provide it to everyone who wants it, assured Enns.

Enns encourages residents to check the clinic schedule on VIHA’s website (www.viha.ca) regularly, as clinic times can change.

As the flu season gets into full swing, superintendent Jordan Tinney provided an update Wednesday on the school district’s response to illness. The update can be found at www.sd71.bc.ca.

“We work closely with the Vancouver Island Health Authority and our medical health officer to monitor the health of our schools,” wrote Tinney. “We do this by tracking the attendance at our buildings and the reasons for absence of students. In our schools, it is not the presence of H1N1 that is a trigger for us to begin specific interventions; it is a rise in the level of absenteeism resulting from flu-like symptoms, which would indicate that the flu is spreading.”

Early in the school year, the district had expected it would be able to confirm or deny for parents the emergence of H1N1 in schools through the confirmation of testing for H1N1, but this is no longer the case, explained Tinney.

“We do not expect that VIHA will be confirming any cases of H1N1 for us because of the concern for privacy of individuals, the widespread influenza activity in the general community and that our response as a school is to be based on influenza-like activity within the school environment and not the actual confirmation of the presence of any cases of H1N1,” he wrote.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com