Thousands of Albertans have faced long lineups and lengthy wait times at public flu vaccine drop-in clinics, and provincial health officials said this week may have the last public clinics of the flu season.

Alberta Health Services said Thursday that a record-breaking number of Albertans had received the flu vaccine since October, but in recent days, demand had increased substantially and the supply of the shot had dwindled.

“We’ve actually immunized more this year than we ever have,” Dr. Chris Sikora, chief medical officer of health for AHS said – as of Wednesday, officials said more than one million doses of the flu vaccine had been administered.

“It’s pretty admirable; we’ve had increased demand in the last few days.”

It’s that demand that’s left health officials with a dwindling supply, and it means there are only enough vaccine doses to finish out the week at public clinics.

“At this point, we’re partway through the season, AHS will continue in the Edmonton Zone to have clinics on Friday, and if supplies hold out, on Saturday,” Sikora said.

CTV News spoke to people lineups at Edmonton clinics Thursday, some waited for up to three hours to get the flu shot – and one of them questioned why the province was pushing Albertans to get the shot, when there wasn’t enough supply to go around.

“It’s just weird, how they say every Albertan should get it, however, it doesn’t seem like they have enough to supply everybody,” Yolanda Korpatniski said Thursday.

However, Alberta Health said pushing the flu shot for every person in the province wasn’t the point.

“We’re trying to immunize everyone we can, and do it in a fiscally responsible way and in every other year we’ve had vaccine left over,” Alberta Health medical officer of health Dr. James Talbot said.

“That’s just a waste, that’s a waste of money.”

Sikora said although the public clinics will end in the coming days, some doses will be set aside for certain groups.

“I don’t have numbers for how much is being held back, but it’s being held back for outbreaks and for children who have received one dose, and still need that second dose,” Sikora said.

This year, officials said they were more successful in getting the message to immunize out to Albertans – and it’s shaping up to be the first flu season where demand has exceeded supply.

“We want to keep ramping up demand to the point we’d reasonably be able to protect people against a real pandemic,” Talbot said.

Talbot said the federal government is seeking vaccine doses internationally, and will coordinate distribution depending on where it’s most needed – he said he expects to hear more about this very soon.

Dr. Sikora said Thursday that if more vaccines become available, they would look at whether additional clinics would be opened.

As of Wednesday, officials said there were 1,571 lab-confirmed flu cases in Alberta, up from 1,335 on Monday, with 372 Albertans hospitalized for the treatment of the flu.

However, the number of deaths in the province had dropped from 9 to 8 between Monday and Wednesday, officials said one of the deaths was found to not have a connection to influenza.

On Wednesday officials said flu cases had started stretching resources in emergency departments, so the province was opening an influenza assessment clinic Friday to help relieve the added pressure.

The assessment clinic in Edmonton will open at noon Friday at the former location for the Woodcroft Health Centre (13221 115 Avenue), after that, the assessment clinic will be open from 9 am to 11 pm daily.

Officials said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms should go to the assessment clinic – flu immunizations will not be available at that location.

With files from Susan Amerongen