British Columbia’s deputy provincial health officer, Dr. Martin Lavoie, is asking parents to make sure their kids are up to date on their vaccinations before they head back to school.

While the province isn’t making vaccinations mandatory to attend school, as Ontario and New Brunswick have done, it is strongly encouraging families to take advantage of free vaccines.

B.C. also requires that parents inform the province about the immunizations their children have or haven’t received.

Getting kids up to date on their vaccines is especially important this year because of the “significant increase in measles cases in the province and across Canada,” Lavoie said in a press release last week.

So far this year there have been 4,718 measles cases across the country, according to Health Canada. B

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