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       A teacher places the finishing touches on the welcome sign at Hunter's Glen Junior Public School in Scarborough, Ont., on Sept. 14, 2020.

       Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

       Ontario’s largest school board will require its staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

       Trustees for the Toronto District School Board voted unanimously in favour of the measure at a Wednesday-night meeting.

       TDSB staff will develop a procedure that will require all workers, trustees and visitors “to disclose and provide proof of vaccination status and to be fully vaccinated to help protect the health and safety of both staff and students.”

       Those who don’t get their shots will have to attend an education session on the benefits of vaccination.

       There will be exemptions for those who are legally entitled to accommodations.

       The board says it’s still up for debate whether the policy will include regular testing – a cornerstone of the province’s plan for unvaccinated education workers.

       The TDSB says the policy – which it plans to have up and running by the time classes resume on Sept. 9 – will also include deadlines for unvaccinated people to disclose whether they’ve received their first and second doses.

       The trustees also voted to send a letter to the local public health agency and the province, urging officials to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of compulsory shots for all eligible students.

       Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 678 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths from the virus today.

       Health Minister Christine Elliott says 537 of the infected people are not vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

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       The new case numbers are based on 27,815 tests.

       There were 165 patients hospitalized with COVID-related critical illness as of Thursday, including 89 patients on ventilators.

       Eighty-two per cent of Ontario residents aged 12 and older have one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 75 per cent have received both doses.

       The province says it administered 38,932 COVID-19 vaccine doses since the last update for a total of more than 20.6 million shots.

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