Ontario’s crackdown on COVID-19 vaccine medical exemptions seems to be working – CBC

Public health units approved 209 exemption requests submitted by doctors since new rules came into effect

Jan 27, 2022

Ontario’s new rules requiring a review of medical exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines seem to be reining in the number of people being granted a waiver from vaccination mandates.

Research by CBC News reveals that 209 medical exemptions have been approved provincewide since a new requirement that they be checked by public health units came into effect earlier this month.

That figure indicates that fewer than one in 50,000 Ontario adults has a valid medical exemption.

Some employers in the province have said far-higher proportions of their staff sought medical exemptions from their workplace vaccine mandates, a trend that raised alarm bells among Ontario’s health leadership.

The ministry did not provide a requested breakdown of how many exemptions were submitted to and approved by each public health unit. However, three of the province’s largest public health units provided their own figures to CBC News:

Toronto: 65 requests for medical exemptions submitted; 40 accepted.
York Region: 22 requests; 15 accepted.
Ottawa: 18 requests; four accepted.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-vaccine-medical-exemption-qr-code-1.6326586