[T]he [Manitoba] province announced manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline had asked provinces to temporarily discontinue vaccinating Canadians from a specific batch of vaccine shipped in October.

The reason is that there has been a higher ratio of severe adverse reactions to the vaccine among Canadians than from other lots.

Winnipeg flu clinics are expected to run out of vaccine containing an adjuvant to boost its effect early today. However, vaccine without adjuvant will still be available for pregnant women and anyone aged 10 to 64 without a compromised immune system.

The province should receive more vaccine with adjuvant early next week.

Manitoba reported its second H1N1 death of the season on Thursday -- and another large increase in confirmed cases of the virus -- but there was also some good news.

The province released no information about the person who died, other than to say he or she was between 18 and 65 years old and had no known underlying health conditions.

It also said the number of lab-confirmed cases Nov. 10 to 16 had risen by 251, raising the total since Oct. 6 to 543. However, on the bright side, only five patients suspected or confirmed to have H1N1 were admitted to provincial intensive care units in the past week compared with 11 the week before. And as of Thursday, there were only seven H1N1 patients altogether in ICUs.

Health Minister Theresa Oswald Thursday referred to the number of ICU patients as one of the most significant indicators -- more important than the number of confirmed cases.

Dr. Joel Kettner, Manitoba's chief public health officer, said while it's too early to detect a trend from the past week's decline in ICU patients, at least the situation is not getting worse.

"It is an indication that at least compared to the previous week we don't have rising rates (of Manitobans becoming extremely ill from H1N1)," he told reporters Thursday.

In another development Thursday, the province announced manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline had asked provinces to temporarily discontinue vaccinating Canadians from a specific batch of vaccine shipped in October.

The reason is that there has been a higher ratio of severe adverse reactions to the vaccine among Canadians than from other lots.

However, most of the vaccine Manitoba received from the suspect shipment had already been used by the time the province received the alert on Wednesday. Of the 63,000 doses shipped, only 630 remained unused by the four regional health authorities in Manitoba that received them, including Winnipeg's.

Kettner said the suspect lot produced serious and immediate anaphylactic reactions in 1 out of 20,000 vaccinations, compared with 1 out of 100,000 in other shipments.

As of Nov. 16, there have been 88 adverse reactions in Manitoba to H1N1 vaccine, of which seven were considered serious. Five of those have been confirmed as anaphylactic reactions.

Kettner said no one in Manitoba has suffered any prolonged adverse effects from the H1N1 vaccine.

Meanwhile, the city's 12 mass H1N1 immunization clinics reported a bump up in numbers Wednesday and Thursday, the first days they were open to all Winnipeggers, according to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

About 10,000 were immunized Wednesday and 10,500 Thursday, compared to 7,000 to 8,000 in the days leading up to the removal of restrictions on who could be immunized.

Most Winnipeggers interviewed at clinics at Grant Park, St. Mary's Road and in St. James late Thursday morning said it took an hour or less from the time they arrived to the time they left.