Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health.Evan Buhler/The Canadian Press
The provincial government says it won’t be adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of immunizations students are required to have to attend schools.
But the province’s top doctor says he’ll be exercising caution when it comes to lifting public health measures in schools.
Dr. Kieran Moore says the province will look at the trends and the – quote – “ongoing threat” of COVID-19.
If the virus is an ongoing threat, Moore says the government will then review the integration of COVID-19 vaccination status into the law.
Ontario’s health minister says a plan is coming next week about third COVID-19 vaccine doses for residents.
Christine Elliott said on Twitter Friday that the plan will involve timing for third shots, with information “for all Ontarians.”
Her comments came after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization issued new guidance to provinces and territories about who should be eligible for boosters.
The committee now recommends third shots for people fully vaccinated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, people over age 70, more front-line health-care workers, and people from Indigenous communities.
Ontario is currently offering third shots to long-term care residents, transplant recipients, some cancer patients and people receiving specific medications.
British Columbia, meanwhile, has said anyone in the province who wants a booster shot of a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine will be able to get one by May 2022.
Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 419 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths from the virus.
The case numbers are based on 29,592 completed tests.
Elliott says 279 cases are in people not fully vaccinated or with unknown vaccination status.
She says 140 cases are in fully vaccinated people.
There are 130 people in intensive care with COVID-related critical illness including 89 people on ventilators.
The province says 88 per cent of people aged 12 and older have at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 84 per cent have received both shots.
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