The Denton County Health Department scheduled three additional mass vaccination clinics this week for the swine flu — one on Thursday and two on Saturday.

The department plans to reach more of the county’s rural residents by having clinics at the Copeland Government Center in Cross Roads and Northwest High School in Justin all day on Saturday. Thursday’s clinic will be held in the evening at Griffin Middle School in The Colony.

The department continues to emphasize vaccinating high-risk groups, including pregnant women, young people 6 months to 24 years old, first responders, health and child care workers and people with chronic health problems or compromised immune systems.

Department spokeswoman Betsy Haggard said that because the county receives the H1N1 vaccines free from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is vaccinating people for free, officials felt they should focus on those high-risk groups.

However, no one will be turned away from this week’s clinics.

“If someone shows up and thinks they really need it, we’re not going to turn them away,” Haggard said.

The health department has about 7,000 doses, Haggard said.

In addition to the multi-dose vials, which are used to deliver the vaccine to most people, the department also has intranasal vaccine and thimerosal-free vaccine.

The thimerosal-free doses have been earmarked for pregnant women and very young children.

“We have people asking for that,” Haggard said. “People are asking for it because of the concerns with thimerosal and mercury.”

The intranasal doses are practical only for patients ages 2 to 49 who are completely healthy, Haggard said.

The health department no longer has any seasonal flu vaccine.

“There definitely was more of a demand for it,” Haggard said. “Those [vaccines] are going to be hard to come by.”

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .