When Vanessa Scheepers arrived around 1:30 p.m., the line was already heading down Chedmac Drive.

By the looks of it, the mother of two and her mom were in for a three-hour wait. At least.

"It's daunting," said Ms. Scheepers, who stood in line for the H1N1 clinic at the Chedoke twin-pad arena today with her month-old son in her arms. "But I'll stay."

Up until last weekend she had been on the fence about getting the shot or immunizing her two-year-old daughter.

But the death of 13-year-old Evan Frustaglio, who died Monday after exhibiting flu-like symptoms at a hockey tournament the previous day, pushed her to rethink her stance.

"When that boy died, everyone panicked," said Ms. Scheepers, and that's what has led to the huge line at clinics around the province.

As many as 2,000 people were expected at today's clinic, which runs until 7 p.m. at the west Mountain arena. The first person in line arrived before 9 a.m.

The doors opened at 1 p.m.; 23 stations were set up for the inoculations and an army of staff patrolled the line to have people sign consent forms ahead of time.

"Regularly we would have 19 nurses at our clinics … but we've actually brought in another four nurses just to keep up with the crowds," said Fiona Newton-Brown, manager of public health services. "We're actually redeploying nurses from other areas of Public Health."

Today's clinic is the only one this week on the Mountain. Clinics will run at Chedoke weekdays 1-7 p.m. beginning Monday.

See the City of Hamilton website for full schedule of H1N1 clinics in the city.