By Maria Altman, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO. – Barnes-Jewish Hospital is cancelling three of its scheduled dates to give seasonal flu shots because of an unexpected demand for the vaccine.
The hospital has been offering free shots to the public this week seeing more than 20-thousand people so far.
Barnes-Jewish spokesman Jason Merrill says that's a 30 percent increase over previous years.
"Right off the bat we had lines we've never seen before," he said.
Merrill says the high demand is likely due to the short supplies this year. He says many offices got less of the seasonal vaccine than expected because manufacturers were working on the H1N1 vaccine.
Barnes-Jewish is offering free flu shots through Friday, but three dates at YMCA locations have been cancelled:
Saturday, October 10 at Emerson Family YMCA on Pershall Road
Wednesday, October 14 at Edward Jones Family YMCA on Marine Avenue.
Saturday, October 24 at Monsanto Family YMCA on Page Blvd.