Hawaii is among 25 states and cites that expect to receive their first doses of swine flu vaccine as soon as Tuesday — but don’t start lining up yet.

The first shipment will be directed to first responders — emergency medical, fire and hospital care workers — said state Department of Health spokeswoman Judy Kern.
Additional shipments to Hawaii in coming weeks will be available to more people, through doctors and clinics that have ordered it. Exactly how and when shots and nasal spray vaccinations will be available is still being worked out.
Hawaii has been allocated 14,400 doses of the new vaccine for its first week of shipment, a number based on the state’s population.
The first 600,000 doses of the vaccine will be in a nasal spray form that can only be used by people ages 2 to 49, who are not pregnant or ill, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today.
An estimated 6 to 7 million doses of vaccine should be distributed nationally next week, and they should include both shots and the nasal spray form of the vaccine.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, who heads the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and
Respiratory Diseases, said orders for the vaccine have been placed by Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, plus Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Schuchat also said about 300,000 pediatric, liquid doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu have been released from a national medicine stockpile to address a shortage.