The London area's top doctor wants hospital workers to get their COVID-19 shots.
At the Middlesex-London Health Unit's virtual media briefing on Monday, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie said they'll first try a mandatory reporting system, but may eventually make the vaccinations a requirement.
"I'm absolutely in favour of mandating, with appropriate exceptions," Mackie said. "People who have medical exemptions, or there has to be an outlet for folks who really have a philosophical or religious reason for not getting vaccinated."
"The same way we have second hand smoking legislation, wherever you are indoors within proximity of others, you can't smoke, you put other people at risk," he added.
Mackie made the comments in the midst of an outbreak at the London Health Sciences Centre, which was also reported on Monday.
The outbreak is at the Victoria campus’ B7-200 Adult Inpatient Mental Health unit. Fewer than five cases are linked to the unit, according to the LHSC. The hospital network has a total of six inpatients with COVID-19. Of those in hospital with the virus, fewer than five are in the intensive care unit. Currently, there are no hospital employees who have tested positive for COVID-19.
There are nearly 15,000 staff and physicians who work at the London Health Sciences Centre, and roughly 70% of them have said that they're vaccinated according to LHSC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adam Dukelow.
"We'll be following the direction of the province in mandating vaccination for staff and physicians if that does happen," Dukelow said. "We can't make these decisions in isolation, we have to take into account our unions, our people and a variety of other items."
Case counts locally remain low, but Mackie is concerned about increasing cases later this summer or in the fall.
"If we want to get our vaccination rate up from 80 to 90 percent, we absolutely need mandatory vaccines," he said.
As of July 17, 79% of people aged 12 and older in London and Middlesex County had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
"You saw the huge success in France when France introduced vaccine passport requirements for entering into restaurants, you saw two million people sign up within the two days after that announcement," Mackie added. "That's exactly the sort of policy that will get us over that 80% threshold up to 90%. That will really put this pandemic to bed."