Ontario’s medical regulator is urging doctors to be judicious about handing out medical exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines.

       The message from the registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario comes after the province announced a vaccine certificate program.

       The system will require residents to be inoculated against COVID-19 to access some non-essential services, unless there’s a medical reason they can’t be vaccinated.

       Dr. Nancy Whitmore says the college has already heard about requests for baseless medical exemptions, and physicians must not give in.

       She says there are very few legitimate medical reasons not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

       They include an allergist-confirmed severe allergy or anaphylactic reaction to a previous dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or to any of its components, and a diagnosis of myocarditis or pericarditis after receiving an mRNA vaccine.

       Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 865 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 new deaths linked to the virus.

       Health Minister Christine Elliott says 692 of the new diagnoses are in people who are not fully vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.

       The remaining 173 cases are in fully vaccinated patients.

       Government data shows 320 Ontarians are hospitalized due to COVID-19, with 162 in the ICU and 105 on a ventilator.

       Elliott says 292 of those hospitalized are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

       She says roughly 83 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and older have at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 76.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.

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