And now everyone can get their poke in the arm.

Late Thursday, Provincial Medical Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall announced the floodgates have been thrown open on the H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine and every British Columbian that wants the shot can get one.

“I want to encourage every British Columbian who has not yet been vaccinated to now go out and get their shot as soon as possible,” Kendall said. “Becoming complacent would be a mistake and, unless we get more people immunized, there is still potential for B.C. to see as many hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks as we have seen to date.”

The next Swine Flu and Seasonal Flu vaccination clinic in Cranbrook is Friday Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Baker Street Mall. Another full clinic will be held Nov. 24 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Baker Street Mall and on Nov. 25 at the same location from noon to 5 p.m.

The Associates Clinic and the Tamarack Medical Clinic also have Swine Flu vaccination supplies, but in the main they are being administered to patients of the clinics. The Dr. F.W. Green Clinic does not have Swine Flu vaccine “at this time,” said a clinic spokesman.

The next Swine and Seasonal Flu clinic in Kimberley is Nov. 28 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Centennial Hall. During the week of Nov. 23, people not living close to a mass flu clinic are asked to go to the clinic nearest them or check with their family physician.

“Many of our clinics this week have not been running at full capacity, so it is only fair to open up the eligibility criteria for H1N1 vaccine to everyone that wants it”, says Interior Health Association (IHA) Senior Medical Health Officer, Dr. Andrew Larder. “ We do not want to have vaccine sitting in our fridges. Our goal is to get the H1N1 vaccine into as many arms as possible.”

To help meet the expected increase in demand and reach people that are busy during work or school hours, many of Interior Health’s flu clinics are being scheduled into the evening and on weekends.

On November 13th, The Public Health Agency of Canada updated its recommendations on H1N1 flu vaccine dosing for children between 3 and 9 years of age.  The updated recommendations suggest that a single half-dose of adjuvanted H1N1 flu vaccine for healthy children may provide an acceptable level of protection from infection from the H1N1 flu virus.

B.C. expects to receive an additional 258,000 doses of vaccine Friday and anticipates receiving approximately 640,000 doses late next week. In total, 1.16 million doses of the vaccine have already been delivered to British Columbia.

“When eligibility was expanded last week, we anticipated line-ups all through this week as demand would once again increase among these new groups, but this has not occurred,” said Kendall. “While we do not yet have enough vaccine to administer to everyone who is now eligible, given that our clinics are operating at less than full capacity, it is only fair to open it up to the rest of the population so that any and all British Columbians who want to be vaccinated can now do so.”

Building on distribution plans already in place, regional health authorities will receive shipments of additional doses on a weekly basis. The vaccine will continue to be made available through public flu shot clinics, physicians’ offices and, in some regions of the province, through a number of pharmacists who have been trained and licensed to administer the vaccine.

“To date, we estimate almost one million British Columbians have been immunized, including a large percentage of health care workers and many people who are considered to be at the highest risk,” said Minister of Healthy Living and Sport Ida Chong. “I hope that many more British Columbians will consider getting the vaccine to help increase population immunity and help prevent a possible third wave of the pandemic.”

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