Reservation tickets for the novel H1N1 vaccine will be available at 8 a.m. today at the Utah County Health Department.

Those people will then have to hang onto those tickets for a few days, as vaccine clinics this week are open Thursday and Saturday, a break from the usual Tuesday-Thursday schedule.

"People have been asking us for an after-hours or an off-work hours clinic," said Lance Madigan, spokesman for the health department.

The health department expects to receive almost 13,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine this week, and about 5,000 reservation tickets will be handed out. Madigan said the doses not distributed to the public are going to hospitals, family practice doctors, obstetricians and other facilities that work with high-risk people.

The state's numbers, released late last week, show that while influenza-like illness being reported is still far above the threshold to be considered normal, it is down to 4.7 percent of the population, compared to 5.9 percent two weeks ago. More than 600 Utahns now have been hospitalized with swine flu, according to the Utah Department of Health, and 14 have died of the illness, two in Utah County. The severity of this outbreak is slightly greater than what is expected from the seasonal flu, although all of the flu cases reported are swine flu.

Nationally, the number of people going to the doctor with the flu decreased this week, but the number of hospitalizations rose; children younger than 4 years old have the largest rates of hospitalization. Doctor visits for influenza-like illness is higher now than at any time since the swine flu first hit in March as well as being higher than during the regular flu seasons of 2007 and 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Almost every state, with the exception of Mississippi, Hawaii, Nebraska and Texas, have reported widespread flu activity; the flu outbreak is regional in those four states. The rate of pediatric deaths also is higher from the swine flu than past flu seasons; 117 children have died from the swine flu since Aug. 30, while 127 children died from seasonal flu during the entire 2008-09 flu season.

Internationally, the United States has the largest outbreak, although the number of cases reported decreased by about half last week from the week prior. As of yet, South America, Australia and much of Africa and Asia are not reporting any swine flu cases, according to the CDC.

Now, all of that doesn't mean all of Utah County should rush to the health department. The vaccine is still available for priority groups, which includes pregnant women, people under the age of 24 years, people who live with a newborn or people with chronic conditions that make them more susceptible to the virus.

So far, Utah County has administered about 29,000 vaccines, "which is still a far cry short of half a million, which is what our population is," Madigan said.

As more doses become available, the vaccine should be available outside of the CDC's priority group. Those in the priority group who want the vaccine can go to the Utah County Health and Justice Building, 151 S. University Ave., starting at 8 a.m. today. Health officials have been giving out tickets at a rate of 1,000 to 1,500 an hour, and people probably will have to wait in line for the tickets, although having a ticket significantly reduces the amount of time people have to wait to actually get the vaccine, Madigan said.

He asked that people leave the Saturday clinic, which is only half a day, for those who cannot come at any other time. All of the vaccines will be administered at the health department as well. Adults can get up to six tickets for immediate family members.

• Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2556 or htoth@heraldextra.com.

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