More Mohave County residents will have the opportunity to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine starting Friday, according to county health officials.

Hospital staff at Havasu Regional Medical Center received the vaccine first during the initial countywide distribution in early October. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed health care workers as a high priority to receive vaccines.

Since then, other area physicians and clinics have administered the vaccine to pregnant woman, caregivers of children younger than 6 months old, children 6 months old to 4 years old, and children 5 years old to 18 years old with chronic medical conditions.

Now, county health officials say residents between 25 and 64 years of age with medical conditions can receive the vaccine, along with individuals 6 months to 24 years old.

In Lake Havasu City, the Public Health Nursing Office at 2001 College Drive will provide the vaccine between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays.

A message left with the nursing office was not returned Wednesday.

The extended vaccinations come at a time when Mohave County has announced five deaths related to the H1N1 flu and 259 confirmed cases, of which 24 residents are hospitalized, according to recent county figures.

Out of Arizona’s 15 counties, Mohave County has the fourth highest number of confirmed H1N1 cases, according to recent state health department figures. Of all the H1N1 confirmed cases statewide since April, roughly 1.3 percent of them have resulted in death.

Jennifer McNally, assistant director of Mohave County Department of Public Health, said county officials have not had to initiate plans so far to assist hospitals in the event of an overwhelming flu season.

She said county officials didn’t set any expectations as to how this flu season would pan out.

“I can’t tell you how we are doing compared to what we thought, because we weren’t trying to estimate anything at the beginning,” she said.

County officials met weekly to track the flu’s presence and vaccine distribution.

Lake Havasu Unified School District officials were unable to provide figures Wednesday on each school’s student absentee rate.

The H1N1 strain — first known as swine flu — appeared in Mexico and the United States in the spring, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In June, the World Health Organization declared worldwide pandemic because of the severity of how the virus was spreading at that time.

For more information on the vaccines, call the toll-free emergency information line at 866-409-4099.

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com.