Ontario’s top public health official says that there needs to be a “review” of the circumstances in which unvaccinated employees in some workplaces are being granted medical exemptions amid evidence pointing to an exemption rate that is hundreds of times higher than it should be.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday that he has heard anecdotal reports from employers with mandates suggesting that the medical exemption rate for employees is between one and two per cent.

But Moore said that medical exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine should be limited to people who are at risk of a severe allergic reaction to one of its components or people at elevated risk of developing a rare heart condition known as myocarditis.

“If you put those calculations together we should be seeing medical exemptions of around one to five per 100,000. We are seeing a higher number reported by workers and I think it deserves a review,” he said. “Certainly we have tried to educate physicians and nurse practitioners who fill out these forms to make sure there are aware of the two major exemptions.”

Moore’s comments on Tuesday come as the Ford government continues to face questions from opposition leaders regarding why two out of its 70 MPPs have been granted medical exemptions to remain unvaccinated, despite the party’s policy requiring that its members be fully vaccinated.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called the situation “statically curious” on Monday and on Tuesday she said that the government should “verify the legitimacy of the claims being made.”

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca also weighed in on the exemptions on Tuesday, which he said do appear to be “kind of out of whack” and “a bit unusual” given the statistics shared by Moore.

“The larger issue is that when the premier of the province of Ontario himself has consistently undermined every effort around mandatory vaccination it is not that difficult to understand why members of his own caucus don’t necessarily think they need to play by those same rules,” Del Duca said.

Sources say government is choosing to ‘trust’ MPPs

Government House Leader Paul Calandra told reporters on Monday that the Progressive Conservative party’s human resources department is responsible for verifying the validity of the medical exemptions given to MPPs Christina Mitas and Lindsey Park and “presumably” would have received “medical exemptions from medical practitioners following the guidelines set forward by the Chief Medical Officer of Health.”

But sources in the Ford government told CTV News Toronto that MPPs have “the right to a private relationship with their doctor” and that party leadership is choosing to accept the exemptions and “trust these individuals.”

Speaking with reporters earlier in the day, Moore did not specifically address the vaccination rate among the PC caucus but did say that efforts have to be undertaken to make physicians and nurse practitioners “better aware of what the true medical exemptions are.”

“It is an ongoing quality improvement initiative on informing them of what the true medical exemptions are,” he said. “I want to ensure that all Ontarians have the benefit of protection of immunization and a false medical exemption or an incorrect one bypasses our ability to protect them. So I would hope these conversations are happening between physician and patient, nurse and patient and the physicians are seeking guidance from their respective college regarding what are the appropriate medical exemptions.”

Ontario has only mandated vaccination for long-term care workers so far though a number of other employers, including about 40 per cent of hospitals, have decided to introduce their own mandatory vaccination policies.

With files from CTV News Toronto's Colin D'Mello