Distribution of the first 10,000 swine flu nasal spray vaccines will be limited to hospitals that have registered for them and be given only to their health care workers, a state health official said Monday.

“Any healthy health care workers who want to participate can get the nasal mist,” said Liz Sharlot, spokesman for the state health board. The swine flu nasal mist vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women or people with asthma.

The Centers for Disease Control shipped the vaccines to the Mississippi Department of Health today in the first stage of what will be a “slow process” of vaccinating the public against H1N1, named a pandemic in June.

Swine flu vaccine injections — as well as seasonal flu shots — are expected to be ready in mid- to late-October, and the CDC will send a new allotment of vaccines to the state each week, Sharlot said. As they come in they’ll be targeted to priority groups — pediatricians and obstetrician-gynecologists, then schools and finally county health departments.

Officials initially said doctors and retail providers would get the spray vaccines but the plan was amended Monday. A River Region spokesman was unavailable to say if the hospital was participating in the first round.