Appointments for Island Health flu clinics must be booked weeks in advance as Island Health requests more of the vaccine. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

cancelled clinics

Flu shot clinics see high demand, appointments at pharmacies cancelled

Nov 12, 2020 | 11:58 AM

NANAIMO — Anyone who hasn’t yet received their flu shot could be out of luck.

Flu shot appointments are being cancelled across Nanaimo as pharmacies run out of the flu vaccine.

NanaimoNewsNOW observed on Nov. 12 appointments could not be booked online with Save-on-Foods or Shoppers Drug Mart.

A NanaimoNewsNOW staff member was told on Nov. 10 their flu shot appointment at Save-on-Foods for Nov. 12 was cancelled due to a lack of available flu vaccine.

London Drugs notified customers they’ve “reached capacity” for bookings and aren’t accepting anyone else until more of the flu vaccine is provided by Island Health.

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The Island Health-run flu shot clinic at Beban Park in Nanaimo had one available appointment through November.

A statement from Island Health said it requested more of the flu vaccine from the BC CDC back in mid-October.

“We expect additional shipments to begin arriving in late November through the end of December,” it said.

“We encourage people to check back with their primary care provider or pharmacist in late November and December if they are unable to book an appointment at this time.”

More than 214,000 doses of the flu vaccine were distributed from Island Health to community providers such as pharmacies. This is 17,000 more than the year before to meet high demand.

Island Health public flu clinics have also provided more than 15,600 doses of the flu vaccine.

The BC CDC confirmed to NanaimoNewsNOW it’s in the process of securing an additional 264,920 flu doses to handle the increase seen across the province.

The initial order of flu vaccines was 1,970,000, which was nearly exhausted by the end of October.

Vaccine shortages is a Canada-wide issue.

The federal public health agency, which orders flu shots for the provinces based on their requests, increased its order by almost 25 per cent this year to 13.9 million doses — for a population of 37 million people.

The federal public health agency says the vaccine is not usually produced after October and any more doses for Canada will need to be sourced from countries that had extra, or the possibility that batches made for Canada ended up producing more than expected.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt