Montreal health authorities say there are no plans to follow Toronto's example and immediately begin vaccinating everyone in the general public.

Starting Thursday, everyone in Ontario who wants the H1N1 flu shot can have it, regardless of age or medical condition.

Toronto threw its doors open to everyone Wednesday afternoon, quickly drawing long lines of people who expressed relief at finally being able to get their shots.

Student vaccinations

Elementary and high school students across the island of Montreal will be bused to designated swine flu vaccination centres beginning next Monday.

Nearly 61,000 school-aged children in Montreal have already lined up and gotten their swine flu shots.

But more than 170,000 students aged five to 19 have not been immunized and public health authorities are hoping to do it before the Christmas break.

Students will be able to get vaccinated during school hours, if they receive consent forms from their parents.

Five Montreal school boards finalized their plans Wednesday morning in conjunction with the Montreal health agency. The decision follows similar student vaccination measures already underway on the South Shore.

Delays

The English Montreal Board won't start vaccinating its students until late next week at the earliest, and the Lester B. Pearson Board will wait until the first week of December.

Officials say scheduled ped days will delay the return of parental consent forms necessary to organize transportation.

The boards will begin sending out consent forms on Thursday.

New express line

For parents opposed to busing, or who don't want to wait up to four weeks for their children to get vaccinated, a new express-line system will go into effect on Thursday at vaccination centres.

"As soon as parents arrive at our vaccination centres with a child of school age, they'll be given a coupon and told to go into that line," said David Levine, head of the Montreal health agency.

"The idea there is to really move that group of (the) population through as quickly as possible."

Plans for specialized schools

Students at schools for the intellectually challenged or disabled will not be bused to vaccination centres. Health officials will instead come to their schools to administer vaccines directly.

There are 59 such schools on the island of Montreal, serving 4,900 children.

With files from The Canadian Press