HOUSTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Five counties in the southeast U.S. State of Florida on Monday announced they would offer free doses of the A/H1N1 flu vaccine to the general public, starting this week.
Orange, Seminole, Polk, Volusia and Flagler county health departments said they would open up their A/H1N1 flu vaccination clinics and administer vaccine to anyone who wanted it.
Until now, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended giving the vaccine only to people in high-risk groups, including pregnant women, young people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years, and people from ages 25to 64 who have underlying health problems such as diabetes.
"The state and the CDC is letting individual county health departments make this decision (to open the A/H1N1 vaccine to all)if they feel they've reached the priority groups," said Dain Weister, spokesman for Orange County Health Department.
"Although the health department will continue to emphasize national priority groups, vaccination efforts will now begin to meet the needs of others seeking protection," he added.
"Anyone who wants the vaccine will not be turned away, and there are many locations where the public can get the vaccine, at no out-of-pocket expense," he promised.
Dr. Bonnie J. Sorensen, director of Volusia County Health Department, said his county had already began offering the vaccine to those outside the high-risk groups.
"Now that many of our counties have opened up the A/H1N1 vaccinations to everyone, this is the perfect opportunity for anyone who wants to be protected against A/H1N1 to come forward to get vaccinated," he said.
The CDC advised that high-risk groups had received priority because manufacturing delays had resulted in limited supplies of the vaccine.
But stepped-up vaccine production and, possibly, reports that many people were choosing not to have themselves or their children vaccinated because of safety concerns, had led to a surplus of vaccine at recent vaccination events.
The Orange County Health Department said it would hold several more free A/H1N1 vaccine events at shopping malls starting this weekend.
All events were on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last, it added. Vaccination events are also scheduled for other four Central Florida counties.
With 73 million doses of the A/H1N1 flu vaccine available nationwide, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the CDC, said on Friday that some communities were beginning to offer it to people outside the priority groups. "The number of communities that do that will increase in the coming weeks," he predicted.
Local reports show that at least four other states -- Texas, Alaska, Arkansas and Oklahoma -- have begun offering A/H1N1 flu vaccine to all.
"We're still in a period of changing gears, from a time of not having enough vaccine, to a time of having adequate supply for anyone to receive shots," Dr. Frieden said.
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