Montreal families flocked to the Olympic Stadium Saturday to take advantage of their new eligibility on the H1N1 vaccination list.
As of Friday, three new groups were made eligible to receive the H1N1 inoculation, including young people between the ages of five and 19 and those who live with children between 6 months and five years of age.
Family members of those with compromised immune systems are now also allowed to get the swine flu vaccine.
"The opportunity was here, I read the paper early this morning, it said that the coupons were being given out, so we thought 'Well, it's Saturday, it's a good day, we might as well come down,'" said mother of two, Penny Mancuso.
As of Saturday, more than 1.3 million Quebecers have been vaccinated.
For those not going on their own, Quebec's health ministry has been considering a plan to bus children to vaccination centres, but the logistics are still being worked out.
"There's going to be a collaboration between public health and school boards to bring students to those massive (vaccination) places. And that could vary from region to region, from one CLSC to CLSC and it's going to be schools who are going to be in contact with parents to say exactly when it's going to happen," said Horacio Arruda, director of Public Health Protection.
Swine flu didn't hit as hard as predicted
Quebec health officials say the province hasn't been as hard hit by the swine flu as was initially expected.
However, Yolaine Galarneau of the provincial health ministry says the second wave of the flu is not yet over.
Five per cent of Quebec's hospital beds are currently occupied by people sick with the H1N1 virus.
Since Aug. 30, 28 deaths have been attributed to swine flu in the province.
Nurses take shots home
Meanwhile, Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc is also criticizing a handful of nurses for bringing H1N1 shots home to vaccinate their families.
A dozen nurses in Quebec's North Shore region were involved in the incident, which took place two weeks ago.
With a report from The Canadian Press
