Hundreds of vaccine catch-up clinic appointments opened for Waterloo region students

Hundreds of vaccine appointments are being made available to students in Waterloo region who have received notice to update their records with public health or face suspension from school.

Region of Waterloo Public Health says there are 32,000 students in the community who need to update their vaccine records. Public health says about 22,000 elementary students and 10,000 secondary students do not have up-to-date records.

Not all students need to get their vaccines. In some cases, they just need to update their records, public health said.

David Aoki, the region's director of infectious diseases and chief nursing officer, said in a release that the catch-up clinics will help students who have not received all their vaccines.

"We have expanded our clinic capacity to help students get the vaccines that they need to stay in school," he said in the release.

Appointments can be booked through the public health website for one of two locations:

Vaccine record updates are mandatory under the Immunization of School Pupils Act. Records can be updated online with a copy of a student's vaccination record and health card number.

Students who do not update their records will face suspension. For elementary students the suspension date is March 27. For secondary students, it's May 1.

More than 10,000 students in the area covered by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health have received notices they, too, need to update their vaccination records.

Public health says that includes 8,000 elementary students and 2,400 high school students.

Elementary students received a notice that indicated they had until March 6 to update their records.

High school students received their notices in November and have until Feb. 14 to update their immunization records.

Public health noted children who cannot be immunized for medical reasons need to submit a form called the statement of medical exemption, which has to be completed by a physician.

If parents or students choose not to immunize for religious or conscientious reasons, there are other steps they need to follow. Information about that can be found on public health's website.