Southwestern Ontario is leading the province when it comes to the percentage of students with vaccine exemptions for non-medical reasons, with Elgin and Oxford counties ranking highest in Ontario and other counties in the region not far behind.
A new study by Public Health Ontario found more than 2.5 per cent of students seven to 17 years old in Southwestern Public Health – the health unit that covers Elgin and Oxford counties – had religious or conscience-based immunization exemptions and no vaccine doses, the highest of any health unit in the province.
Between 1.5 and 2.5 per cent of students in the health units that cover Brantford, Huron, Perth and Grey-Bruce had the same non-medical exemptions and no vaccine doses on record.
The Middlesex London Health Unit and the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit both had less than one per cent of students seven to 17 years old with a non-medical exemption and no immunizations.
