Manitoba’s back-to-school vaccine strategy is education, province says

Manitoba kids are getting ready to head back to the classroom, which often comes with some early-school-year sick days as they’re once again exposed to many other children in confined spaces.

In the Southern Health Region, officials are encouraging parents to get their kids’ vaccinations up to date, as there are larger concerns there than the common cold.

The region’s recent population health assessment says it has the lowest numbers in the province when it comes to childhood immunizations for measles , mumps and rubella (MMR) shots and meningococcal disease. In Southern Health, just over 53 per cent of seven-year-olds are up to date on their measles vaccines — around 13 percentage points lower than the area with the next-lowest coverage.

So far this year, measles cases peaked in February, with 177 confirmed across the province. The situation eased by June, when there were only eight confirmed, but Dr. Mahmoud Khodaveisi with the Southern Health Region says they’re asking parents to remain vigilant so infections don’t spike again during the school year.

“For immunization, the uptick was higher compared to previous years but I have to mention the rate is much below the ideal goals,” Khodaveisi says. “With the fall and the weather starting to become more cold and people starting to stay inside, we’re hoping that this doesn’t happen again and we don’t have many cases of measles.”

Early measles symptoms include fever or blotchy red rashes, but complications can include lung infection or brain inflammation.

Measles cases in Manitoba in 2026 have resulted in 52 hospitalizations and six ICU admissions. More than 82 per cent of cases were in people with no doses of the vaccine.

Across Canada, only two provinces, Ontario and New Brunswick, have vaccine requirements for children who want to attend school in person. Manitoba previously had a mandate, but that has since been repealed.

“There was a period of time where many of these contagious infections were lower and specific jurisdictions or provinces reduced the requirement or didn’t follow up on rules that were already on the book that required these to enter school,” McMaster University professor of medicine Dawn Bowdish says.

The professor says the provinces mandating school vaccines had widespread success in preventing the spread. Manitoba has confirmed 680 cases so far in 2026 compared with Ontario with 31.

“It’s thought this contributes to parents becoming aware of their child not being up to date,” Bowdish says. “Oftentimes people have no issue with being vaccinated but maybe they moved provinces or they’ve had some disruptions during their childhood vaccine schedule and they simply don’t know that they’re not up to date and most of these vaccines require two, three or four shots.”

In Manitoba, there’s no plan to add vaccine requirements to enter schools. The province says the game plan is education.

“Our stance still is to try to provide as much information as possible to dispel the extreme amount of disinformation,” chief provincial public health officer Brent Roussin says.