The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) received and repackaged 61,500 doses of nasal-spray H1N1 flu vaccine to more than 100 local health departments and hospitals across the state on Thursday.

The vaccine – approved for use in healthy people 2 to 49 –was slated to arrive in communities on Friday and will be used to vaccinate health care workers and EMS workers who provide direct patient care.

Also on Friday, the ODH submitted an order for more than 152,000 doses of H1N1 flu vaccine to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The order includes 58,300 doses of nasal-spray vaccine and 94,400 shots of H1N1 flu vaccine.

The (CDC) recommends certain priority groups receive the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it becomes available. Right now, health care and emergency medical services personnel are able to receive available vaccine. As more vaccine becomes available, others in the priority groups will be able to receive the vaccine. Once enough pandemic H1N1 vaccine becomes available, others will be able to receive it.

Those priority groups include pregnant women; caregivers and those in contact at home with children under the age of 6 months; children 18 years and younger as well as young adults between the ages of 19 and 24 because they often live, work, or study in close proximity; and people between the ages of 25 and 64 who have health conditions that would make them more susceptible to complications from influenza.

Ohio placed its first order was for 61,500 doses of H1N1 vaccine from the CDC last Oct. 2. While many different forms of H1N1 vaccine are being produced, the initial shipment of FluMist is intended for use in healthy people ages 2 to 49.