Queen’s Park is “clamping down” on dubious medical exemptions by beefing up Ontario’s system for proof of COVID-19 vaccinations, the Star has learned.
“It’s not going to be OK just to have a doctor’s note — we know most of them aren’t valid,” a senior government official said Thursday night.
“We’re clamping down on ‘valid exemptions’ by putting them into the green pass system,” said the insider, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations.
To that end, Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health, is expected to announce Friday that the Verify Ontario QR code system now in use by more than 10 million Ontarians will be bolstered.
People who have obtained a doctor’s note excusing them from getting a COVID-19 shot will have to take it to a local public health unit for verification.
That information would then be included on a QR code on their phone so they can only access services such as restaurants, theatres or sports arenas with a valid exemption.
“We’ve seen the same doctors giving out exemptions to everyone who asks,” said the official, noting the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has been barring some doctors from issuing vaccination or mask exemptions.
It is not known how many potentially invalid exemption letters are circulating.
Moore will also confirm what Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday: the proof-of-vaccination QR code provisionally slated to begin being phased out on Jan. 17 will continue to be used indefinitely.
That’s due to a recent surge in cases of COVID-19’s Delta variant, and the arrival of the more contagious Omicron variant.
Despite rumours that were circulating on Twitter — upsetting parents and students alike — Moore will not be shutting down schools early for the Christmas break or extending the holiday in January.
There had been some consideration of doing so in order to allow more children to get vaccinated next week, but public health officials nixed that idea.
Nor will Ontario be lowering the age threshold for COVID-19 booster shots to 18, as had been speculated on social media.
The province is sticking with the plan to extend boosters for those aged 50 and up, which begins Monday.
That’s because few if any younger adults have hit the recommended 168-day mark since their second shot, another senior official said.
They will be able to get them in the New Year, while people over 50 are at greater risk from the virus.
The changes come as Ontario hit a six-month high with 1,290 new COVID-19 infections reported Thursday.
Moore will also announce some other “tweaks” to public health measures but nothing that affects schools or businesses.
That means no widespread lowering of capacity limits as had been rumoured.
Three health units in the London area issued a joint statement urging residents to work from home if possible and to limit the number of people they invite into their homes after more than 200 outbreaks in the region in the last week.
“It is time to reduce opportunities for transmission before our health-care system is overwhelmed,” said the joint statement from the Middlesex-London, Huron-Perth and Southwestern (Woodstock and St. Thomas area) health units.
They called on residents to keep indoor home gatherings to a maximum of 10 people (the provincial limit is 25), with anyone over 12 being vaccinated. Children 12 and older who are not vaccinated “should avoid any non-essential indoor contact with individuals who are not part of their household,” the health units said in a joint statement.
Moore and Premier Doug Ford have repeatedly said they prefer a targeted, regional approach to pandemic restrictions rather than a province-wide, one-size-fits-all strategy.
Article From: The Star
Author: Robert Benzie, Rob Ferguson
