There are certain vaccinations that every schoolchild in Ontario has to have received… to be allowed to stay in school.
Back in August, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, said the percentage of children with up-to-date immunizations needs to be 100 per cent.
He said that beginning in September, all school boards will disqualify kids without all their vaccinations, unless they have a valid exemption.
Now that the year has reached a midpoint, the Porcupine Health Unit says it is performing due diligence to make sure all students in the Northeastern region are up-to-date with vaccinations.
Public Health Nurse Kelly Vos says that means double-checking all students .
“We are just going to start entering that process where all the students that attend our schools have immunization records that are maintained in an electronic database, so very soon we will be running through that database to assess students.”
Vos says if your child is missing vaccinations you should expect to hear from the health unit.
“If we didn’t have adequate records or their child wasn’t up to date that they should be expecting to hear from us from probably late February at the latest.”
Vos also says the suspension process will begin in late April.
Reported by Nick Birnie