WASHINGTON – A Maryland manufacturer will provide an additional 1 million doses of its FluMist vaccine, making a total of 3 million doses of the nasal spray available, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said Thursday, as officials tried to deal with a shortage of flu shots.

However, FluMist, which contains weakened live virus, cannot be used by those at highest risk for flu complications. It is approved only for healthy people aged 5 to 49.

Thompson encouraged health care workers and people who care for high-risk individuals to use the nasal spray.

“It is safe. It is protective and people should avail themselves of that opportunity,” Thompson said.

Federal officials had hoped to offer 100 million doses of flu vaccine this year after more than 80 million Americans sought doses last year and 152 children died from the flu.

But in early October, manufacturer Chiron Corp. was barred from shipping between 46 million and 48 million doses to the United States because of contamination at its Liverpool, England, plant.