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it plans to send reminder letters this school year to parents and guardians of children whose immunization records are out of date.
Thousands of students in Windsor, Ont., are starting to receive suspension notices because of outdated immunization records, but health units elsewhere in the province are giving families more time to catch up on routine vaccinations after two years of pandemic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 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 required for school attendance but are provided during the school year.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) said it plans to send reminder letters this school year to parents and guardians of children whose immunization records are out of date.
Natalie Schein, a program manager at the health department, said “there is limited capacity to enter and evaluate immunization records” during the pandemic, and OPH expects to get a clearer picture of how many students are currently behind next school year.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) said this week it has issued 7,858 removal orders for students with incomplete immunization records, after reviewing the students’ secondary records in June and sending initial notices.
Students now have until Sept. 12 to update their documents or face suspension for up to 20 days starting Sept. 14, the health unit said.
“Catch-up immunization clinics are being offered at the WECHU offices and at various locations in Windsor and Essex County and will continue through the end of the summer,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Middlesex-London health department said it has so far sent 41,000 letters to students whose immunization records are out of date, noting there is a “higher than usual” number for whom immunization records are out of date.
“There are many reasons that could have contributed to this, including: the student’s ability to access a health care provider during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reality that our health unit did not require immunization records or was suspended students during the pandemic,” the health unit wrote in a statement, noting that some may have received vaccinations but failed to provide the information to public health.
There are plans for an absorption review at the end of the summer, the health unit said, followed by a second round of letters and a first round of suspension notices expected to go out in December.
In Hamilton, the vaccine services manager said suspension notices related to vaccinations are not going out at the moment because public health has decided to delay them “for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic” due to “significant barriers” to vaccine access .
Julie Prieto said in an email that the city’s public health is instead trying to increase uptake through screening and catch-up clinics.
Prieto said as of Aug. 8, about 11,300 of a total of 38,400 students in grades 7 through 12 were behind on immunizations against meningococcal disease, and approximately 5,200 of 13,200 students in grades 11 and 12 were overdue for Tdap vaccines, which protect against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
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, which runs catch-up immunization clinics, said in a statement that it is behind in evaluating 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.
Both Ottawa and Niagara health units said they expect a higher-than-usual number of students to fall behind on required vaccines due to factors related to the pandemic.
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 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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