Canada’s former measles hot spot ends weekly reports, but says outbreak is not over

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This article was published 22/07/2025 (441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Local health officials are ending weekly measles reports for a southern Ontario hot spot that had led the country in infections. 

Southwestern Public Health announced the change Tuesday, adding that doesn’t mean the outbreak is over. It encouraged residents to check for weekly updates on the region from Public Health Ontario, which are released Thursdays.

The local health unit began posting weekly reports online in April when communities including St. Thomas, Elgin and Oxford counties accounted for 45 per cent of cases in the province and the most measles infections in Canada.

But in its last update Thursday, the public health unit reported just one new case for the third week in a row.

Public health experts have expressed cautious optimism about Ontario’s overall slowing counts with 32 new cases reported last week.

However, the medical officer of health for Southwestern Public Health says the risk of measles persists, especially for those who are not vaccinated.

“Please continue to be vigilant in preventing measles and protecting yourselves and loved ones through vaccination,” Dr. Ninh Tran said Tuesday in a statement.

Public Health Ontario releases weekly reports on measles cases, which are compiled from public health unit data.

But as the outbreak surged, the southwestern public health unit also released its own data publicly, with a more localized break down, such as hospitalizations and immunization status of infected individuals within the area. 

Carolyn Richards, who oversees epidemiologists and public health planners at Southwestern Public Health, said that was done to meet increasing public interest as cases rose. 

“We had a lot of people on our website and our social media, so we wanted to put out our data in the same place that people were looking for other information,” she said. 

Richards said her team felt comfortable ending those reports now that spread has slowed, but they could return if cases surge again. 

“We don’t know that it couldn’t increase again. We just know that the cases are low at this time and that it could be possible that’s related to summer holidays, kids aren’t in school,” Richards said. 

Ontario had recorded 2,276 measles cases as of last week. While its case count is still the country’s highest, attention has lately turned to Alberta.

Alberta reported 47 new cases over the weekend, bringing its total cases since March to 1,454 as of Monday.

The province’s former chief medical officers of health Dr. Mark Joffe said July 9 that Alberta had twice the rate of confirmed cases than the more populous Ontario.

The province of Alberta updates its measles count on weekdays and breaks down the number of cases in each zone, with its south zone accounting for more than half of the cases. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025.

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