Thousands of students in Windsor, Ont., are starting to receive suspension notices because of outdated immunization records, but health units elsewhere in the province are giving families more time to catch up on routine vaccinations after two years of pandemic disruptions.
Students between the ages of four and 17 in the province can face suspension from school if they don’t have certain vaccinations. But health officials say immunizations — and public health record-keeping related to them — have fallen behind during the COVID-19 pandemic, as have vaccines, which are not mandatory for school attendance but are given to students during the school year. year.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit said this week it has issued 7,858 suspension orders for students with incomplete immunization records after reviewing the second students’ records in June and sending initial notices.
Students now have until September 12 to update their documents or face suspension for up to 20 days starting September 14, the health unit said.
The health unit – along with many others across the province – runs catch-up immunization clinics throughout the summer.
The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit said parents and guardians have until the end of this year to inform their children of required vaccinations, and plans to start sending notifications in early 2023 that include a date by which records must be sent to avoid suspension.
Toronto Public Health also maintains catch-up immunization clinics, but said in a statement to The Canadian Press that it is behind in assessing immunization records due to the pandemic and is currently in the process of reviewing them.
The last review, planned for the 2019-2020 school year, was suspended in March 2020, the health unit said, and that work “has not resumed due to the ongoing response to the pandemic”.
“This equates to more than two years of missed immunization assessment activities, resulting in an overall decrease in students who are up-to-date with their vaccinations or a valid exemption from 85 percent in 2018-2019 to the current 55 percent,” it said. said in the statement.
Peterborough Public Health said it believes more students are behind on immunizations than usual due to COVID-19 disruptions, and is also holding catch-up clinics.
Patty Fitzgerald, manager of the health unit’s preventable vaccines team, said in a statement that the health unit may review enforcement of the immunization rules next year, but is not issuing stop orders at this time.
The Niagara Regional Public Health Department said it has been unable to fully review immunization records in recent years due to the pandemic and is holding catch-up clinics for students.
“We plan to resume our record review process next school year and expect more children than usual to not have up-to-date records due to several factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” spokeswoman Courtney Westerhoff said in an emailed statement.
Ottawa Public Health said it plans to send reminder letters this school year to parents and guardians of children whose immunization records are out of date.
Natalie Shane, a program manager at the health department, said “there is limited capacity to enter and evaluate immunization records” during the pandemic and Ottawa Public Health expects to get a clearer picture of how many students are currently behind next school year.
“We currently estimate that the number of students behind on immunizations is higher than in previous years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Shane said in an emailed statement.
The health unit said it is exploring options to help students catch up on vaccines.
Ontario’s School Immunization Act requires students to be vaccinated against specific diseases, including polio, measles, tetanus, mumps and diphtheria, in order to attend school, with some exemptions for religious or medical reasons.
Some advocated earlier this year that the COVID-19 vaccinations be added to that list of mandatory vaccines, but Ontario’s chief medical officer has ruled out that possibility for now.
Other vaccinations are optional for school attendance, such as human papillomavirus, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease, but are usually offered to students at school clinics, which have also been delayed by the pandemic. Health units said these vaccinations are also part of catch-up clinics currently being planned or underway.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 10, 2022.
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