The flu pandemic may be on its way out for now, but that didn't stop thousands of kids from showing up for H1N1 immunizations Wednesday at vaccination clinics in Anoka and Hennepin counties.

Parents with children in tow began lining up at 1 p.m. for the 2:30 clinic sponsored by Anoka county at the National Sports Center in Blaine. Throughout the afternoon the line meandered through the vast parking lot before entering the Schwan Center where the parents and kids were directed to the appropriate tables for their vaccines.

The county provided sidewalk chalk for the kids to use while they waited outside.

"As a parent what I loved was the abundance of sidewalk chalk drawing outside the entrance," said Martha Weaver, spokesperson for Anoka County. "That was an indicator that we had the audience we wanted."

The clinic was scheduled to run until 8:30 p.m. or until the vaccine ran out. In Hennepin County, two clinics were scheduled to run until 7:30 and 8:30.

After weeks of shortages, the vaccine is finally becoming more widely available -- just as the flu pandemic continued to wane for the third week in a row, according to new numbers reported Wednesday by state health officials. But state officials warned that it doesn't mean you can stop washing your hands.

December is just around the corner, and that's when the first seasonal flu cases start popping up, said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist for the Minnesota Department of Health. Also, if past pandemics are any guide, there could be a third wave of H1N1 flu in January or February.

"I don't want people to let up," Lynfield said.

Still, she said that a decline in the number of H1N1 flu cases indicates that the pandemic has likely peaked. The number of hospitalizations dropped from 134 to 78 for the week ending Nov. 14, bringing the total to 1,700 since the virus first appeared last spring. Only nine schools reported outbreaks of influenza-like illness, compared to 40 in the previous week and more than 200 per week earlier in the fall.

There were more five deaths reported that were confirmed to be related to the H1N1 virus, all of them in adults who had underlying health conditions, she said. They bring the total of Minnesota deaths from H1N1 to twenty-six, plus two that are considered likely to be related to the virus.

The only number that rose last week was the rate of patients reporting influenza-like illness at medical clinics. The 25 outpatient clinics that function as "sentinel" clinics for the Health Department said the proportion of flu patients increased from from 1.3 percent to 3.75 percent of all patient visits.

An unexpectedly large shipment of H1N1 vaccine late last week also means that the 700,000 or so high-risk people who were first in line to receive immunizations should have gotten them, said Kris Ehresmann, director of the state's vaccine program. But she emphasized that the supply off H1N1 vaccine is still unpredictable and changes from day to day.

Josephine Marcotty • 612-673-7394