MONTREAL -- For the second time since the vaccination campaign was launched for the general public, the province of Quebec has opened up more appointments to a wider group of people one day earlier than scheduled. 

Quebecers who are 35 and older can now book their vaccine appointments by visiting the Clic Sante website. According to the province's roll-out schedule, people 35 and over weren't supposed to be able to book their shots until Friday. 

The next phase in the roll-out will allow Quebecers aged 30 and older to book an appointment as of May 10, according to the schedule. 

To date, 40 per cent of the Quebec population has received their first shot. 

Over the past week, 1.2 million appointments were booked and more than 400,000 doses were administered, according to Quebec's health minister, Christian Dube. 

Quebec also announced Thursday it will soon allow youth between the ages of 12 and 17 to book appointments to be immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech, which Health Canada authorized for use in youth on Wednesday. The move is another effort to build herd immunity from COVID-19 in the province.