ELKHART -- Inmates at the Elkhart County Jail in high-risk groups for the H1N1 flu virus will be immunized within the next week, according to county health and safety officials.

The jail received 220 doses and will distribute them to people within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's priority group guidelines, said Trevor Wendzonka, public information supervisor for the sheriff's department. Vaccine also will be offered to the jail's 89 corrections officers and its health care workers, which number about a dozen, he said.

Wendzonka said the jail has seen some people with flu-like symptoms, but none were tested to determine the presence of H1N1 flu.

"I don't know that there have been confirmed, absolute cases of it," he said.

All of the vaccine going to the jail is inactivated, injectable vaccine, said Gwen Jaeger, manager of nursing services at the Elkhart County Health Department.

"They will get more when the target group is no longer being enforced by the CDC, when there's more vaccine," she said. "We're trying to hit everybody and they do have target population."

GET FLU SHOTS TODAY

The Elkhart County Health Department will have a walk-in seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccination clinic from 1 to 5 p.m. today at the health department, 608 Oakland Ave., Elkhart. Seasonal flu vaccines will cost $21 for adults and $8 for children.

People with Medicare Part B or Medicaid will receive a seasonal flu vaccine for free, but must show their Medicare or Medicaid card at the clinic. The H1N1 vaccine is free and will be available only in the nasal spray form today.

Only people in the Centers for Disease Control's priority groups will be eligible to receive the H1N1 vaccine. Those include people ages 2 to 24 years, and adults ages 25 to 49 if they are healthy and a health care worker, an EMT, or a caregiver of a child younger than 6 months old.