Ontario Isn't Adding COVID-19 To The List Of Diseases Students Must Be Vaccinated Against

Ontario's top doctor announced that the province won't be including COVID-19 on the list of diseases that public school students need to be vaccinated against.

"We reviewed including COVID-19 in the [Immunization of School Pupils Act] and we found that it would be an additional burden at present to local public health agencies and parents and students," Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore said in a press conference on October 28.

The Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA) requires parents to give their local public health units their children's immunization records and keep them up-to-date. These records have to show their children have been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis, whooping cough, and chickenpox in order to be able to attend classes at primary and secondary schools.

Dr. Moore said that they're working on giving local health units a list of students in each classroom at all schools so they can see what everyone's vaccination status is in case there is an outbreak.

"We have to look at the trends and the ongoing threat of this virus," Moore said. "If it persists season after season and is an ongoing threat, at that point, we would review with the government the integration of COVID vaccination status into the ISPA."

Dr. Moore added that the current goal is to improve outbreak management in school settings.

As of October 28, Ontario's public schools have reported 4,454 cases of COVID-19 at schools since they came back to in-person learning this past September.