In addition, the city is discussing the option of opening specialized H1N1 assessment centres, said Dr. Chris Mackie, associate medical officer of health, to relieve the pressure on hospital emergency rooms and health clinics.

Since the first flu clinics opened at the Dundas Baptist Church, Jackson Square and St. Helen’s Elementary School, health care officials have vaccinated about 1,500 people per day, said Dr. Mackie. By the end of the week, the clinics will have reached about one per cent of Hamilton’s high priority people, said Dr. Mackie. About 400,000 Hamiltonians are expected to be vaccinated.

“The clinics have gone extremely well,” said Dr. Mackie. “We will be ramping up the clinics next week.”

The first few days of the Dundas clinic saw long lines, traffic problems and wait times of up to two hours for patient mothers, young children and families.

So far, people who are eligible for this week’s flu shots are individuals with chronic medical conditions under the age of 65, pregnant women, children six months to under five years of age, health care workers and caregivers to individuals considered high risk.

Dr. Mackie said people attending the clinics who did not fit into any of the high-priority categories were told to wait until next week.

He said flu clinics will be open to the general public starting next week. But times and locations had yet to be determined as of News deadline.

Hamilton received last week, 23,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine from the province and Dr. Mackie said another shipment is expected this week. But the doses so far “don’t meet the city’s needs, not by a long shot.”

Hospitals received the first shipment of the H1N1 vaccine earlier this week and will distribute the shots to front-line health care workers.

Dr. Mackie said establishing assessment centres is only in the discussion stage. When the centres will be created would depend upon how much they are needed, he said.

Local hospital emergency rooms, family doctors and ambulance dispatch centres have all reported significant increases in demand earlier this week.

The Stonechurch Family Health Centre on Upper Ottawa Street said this week they were only taking urgent appointments, while other local doctors were taking appointments or were talking to patients over the phone before accepting them if necessary.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mackie said public health won’t be closing schools in the near future because of the H1N1 flu. He said most of the cases in schools are mild.

Nearly one-third of Hamilton schools are battling respiratory outbreaks since last week. Of 114 schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, 32 were declared to have an outbreak, while six schools of 57 in the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board had outbreaks.

Hamilton’s public health department is notified by school boards when more than five per cent of students in a school stay home with flu-like symptoms. After that, public health determines if there is an outbreak.

“The virus is spreading, but it is not causing a huge impact,” said Dr. Mackie. “But we are monitoring it closely.”

Even though the medical community has been urging Hamiltonians to get the flu shot, a recent national poll conducted in October has found opposition to getting vaccinated has grown with 51 per cent of Canadians refusing to get the shot, opposed to 38 per cent of the population who said there were against getting vaccinated in July.

The survey found that 49 per cent of Canadians want the flu shot, a sharp decline from the 62 per cent of Canadians in July.

Dr. Mackie reiterated that it’s imperative that not only high-priority people get the H1N1 vaccination, but also the general population.

“There is something to fear and that is the H1N1 flu,” he said. “It is a serious illness and people have to take action.”