Health authorities able to support school vaccination policies procedures

Jan 18, 2022 | 4:50 PM

A provincial health order is allowing Medical Health Offices (MHOs) to support school districts who are looking at staff vaccination rates.

This order, which was signed Monday, will support MHOs who are working with school districts to compile vaccination status from staff and help with the development and implementation of proof of vaccination policies.

“The first step in this, and this is part of the advice that we’ve been providing to school districts, is understanding the vaccination status of school staff,” said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

The order is also intended to assist MHOs identify which schools are most at risk of outbreaks, which in turn will lead to them being prioritized for support.

“This order takes that pressure away and makes it very clear that there is a legal basis for this requirement, and a standard process for the MHOs when they’re working with their school districts to address these issues,” said Henry.

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“This has been in the works and has been consulted in quite widely over several months, and I know in Interior Health and in Delta, this is an important measure to facilitate what school districts are doing in making their decision around their employees and vaccine mandates.”

Henry added that the order will particularly help schools in the Interior, where “there were a number of school districts that were in negotiations, in discussions, with their staff and with their MHOs.”

This order still has the school districts in charge of making the decision to implement a vaccine mandate policy or not.

Following the release of the order Monday, the B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) stated on Twitter that it had not been consulted or notified ahead of time, and that the order was confusing as it had already agreed to a vaccine mandate process with the B.C. Public School Employers Association.

Photo courtesy of Twitter

Teri Mooring, President of the BCTF, then told the Canadian Press that they would rather see the provincial health office put a vaccine mandate in place instead of just a vaccine status disclosure, saying “the process of disclosing vaccine status is part of the process of implementing a vaccine mandate.”

(With files from The Canadian Press)

by Liam Verster

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