{"id":85510,"date":"2021-09-27T15:33:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T19:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=85510"},"modified":"2021-09-30T09:06:27","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T13:06:27","slug":"torontos-top-doctor-asks-province-to-make-covid-vaccines-mandatory-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/local\/gta\/torontos-top-doctor-asks-province-to-make-covid-vaccines-mandatory-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto’s top doctor asks province to make COVID vaccines mandatory for students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Toronto's
Toronto is putting together plans to vaccinate children over the age of five, though no vaccines have been approved for them at this point. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto’s top doctor\u00a0is asking the province to add COVID-19 vaccines to the list of mandatory vaccines for students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health for Toronto,\u00a0wrote to the city’s board of health this month, asking it to request the province to require COVID-19 vaccination for eligible students based on their age.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

In her Sept. 13 letter to the board of health, de Villa referenced the nine other diseases covered under the act, which students enrolled in school must be vaccinated against.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 is currently not one of those designated diseases<\/p>\n

De Villa wrote in her letter that the safety and effectiveness of approved vaccines has been proven in children 12 and older.<\/p>\n

“Given the current epidemiology of COVID-19 and the need to support the safe re-opening of schools, it recommended that the province require COVID-19 vaccination for students who are eligible based on their age\/year of birth,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

Her recommendation came\u00a0after the chair of the Toronto District School Board, Alexander Brown,\u00a0requested the Ontario government\u00a0add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required vaccinations in a letter\u00a0addressed to de Villa, Education Minister Stephen Lecce and\u00a0Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.<\/p>\n

When asked about the issue on Monday morning, Health Minister Christine Elliott acknowledged her government is considering the move.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to take a look at anything that is going to protect people, including young people,” she said.<\/p>\n

The province’s top public health doctor, Dr. Kieran Moore, has also said the province is looking into adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of those required for students by law, which allows for some exemptions.<\/p>\n

Group formed to prepare for rollout<\/h2>\n

Toronto Public Health has also formed a group to plan for COVID-19 vaccinations of children aged five to 11.<\/p>\n

It says the city is home to 200,000 children in that age cohort.<\/p>\n

The unit says health partners, school boards, representatives from the community, and the provincial Health Ministry are involved in the planning.<\/p>\n

Mayor John Tory says the group is being assembled now so children can be vaccinated as soon as possible after Health Canada approves a COVID-19 shot for them.<\/p>\n

Children born after 2009 are currently not eligible to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in Canada.<\/p>\n

Ontario health units are responsible for administering COVID-19 shots with guidance from the provincial government.<\/p>\n

CBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto’s top doctor\u00a0is asking the province to add COVID-19 vaccines to the list of mandatory vaccines for students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":85515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3538],"tags":[3572,3553,21004],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Torontos-top-doctor-asks-province-to-make-COVID-vaccines-mandatory-for-students-Milenio-Stadium-Ontario.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}