It’s been a tough flu season in Canada and now some pharmacies in the Estevan area have been running out of the flu vaccine.

Jeff Hilderman at the Estevan Pharmasave has seen his pharmacy run out of the vaccine.

“We haven’t had any (of the vaccine) in the last ten days,” he said Tuesday. “Our wholesaler is unable to get it.”

At this late point in the season pharmacies are unlikely to get the vaccine once again, Hilderman indicated.

“We did get an update from the Ministry of Health and we had a previous update stating we had no vaccine available, and that was last week. Then we had an update (Tuesday) that public health is the only place you can get it...”

People who haven’t gotten the vaccine yet can check with their pharmacies to see if they’ve been able to secure more of the vaccine than others, or they can contact public health.

“We were all caught unawares,” he said. “It was a bit of a shock for us not to get anymore.”

The demand was higher by about eight percent and while that is a good thing, the province may have been caught unaware as well, Hilderman said.