FILE: Dr. Kieran Moore. Photo by Meaghan Balogh /Postmedia Warning that Ontario faces a “difficult fall and winter”, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health introduced a series of steps Tuesday aimed at better protecting the province’s most vulnerable against the Delta variant of COVID-19. Article content Those steps […]
Ontario to mandate vaccine reporting in health care, schools and high-risk settings; third dose to be offered to LTC residents
Warning that Ontario faces a “difficult fall and winter”, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health introduced a series of steps Tuesday aimed at better protecting the province’s most vulnerable against the Delta variant of COVID-19.
Those steps don’t go as far as many would like, though. Vaccination reporting and testing will now be mandatory in hospitals and other high-risk settings in Ontario, but vaccination will not. Similar policies will be brought in for schools.
The province will require staff to report their vaccination status and complete an education session and regular testing if they are unvaccinated with no medical reason.
The new directive, announced by Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore, falls short of a mandatory vaccination policy called for many health leaders and organizations as the fourth wave of the pandemic gains pace in the province.
During a media conference, Moore said he would welcome hospitals and other organizations that wanted to go further than and make vaccination mandatory.
“Should an organization choose to implement policies that go above and beyond (this), they will have the authority to do so.”
Still, the failure to mandate vaccinations, especially in healthcare, was immediately criticized.
“There is still no vaccine certificate plan being put in place by this government and that is absolutely wrong. No unvaccinated person should be providing healthcare,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said.
In contrast, Quebec Premier François Legault said Tuesday that his government intended to make vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for health-care workers.
Ontario is taking other steps to protect the most vulnerable from the more transmissible Delta variant, which is now dominant in the province.
