Rockland County Orders Ban on Public Spaces for People Diagnosed with Measles: NPR

A nurse prepares the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at the Rockland County Health Department in Haverstraw, NY, on April 5th.

Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty Images

hide legend

activate the legend

Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty Images

A nurse prepares the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at the Rockland County Health Department in Haverstraw, NY, on April 5th.

Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty Images

While the number of confirmed cases of measles in New York continues to decline, a county is determined to halt the spread of the disease by keeping it out of reach of public spaces.

Rockland County, just north of New York, issued an order Tuesday banning anyone diagnosed with measles from being present in all public gathering places, including schools, restaurants and places of worship. The ordinance also applies to people who have been exposed to a person diagnosed with measles, based on laboratory evidence or a county health department investigation.

Earlier this month, a judge blocked the county 's emergency declaration banning unvaccinated children from entering public places.

"To be told that we should wait until someone dies because of this disease is absolutely inconceivable," said Ed Day, Rockland County leader, at a press conference Monday. "Should we wait until hundreds of extra people get so sick?"

This is the latest step taken by officials in the region to combat the spread of measles. On Monday, 186 cases had been confirmed in Rockland County and 329 in New York since the beginning of the year. Homes, which are concentrated in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, have been associated with travelers returning from Israel, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cases have also been reported throughout the country, including Washington, New Jersey, California and Michigan, bringing the total number to more than 550. This is the second largest epidemic in the world. importance in the United States in two decades.

On Monday, New York City closed a preschool program in a Brooklyn yeshiva for failing to meet measles immunization requirements. The closure, which is the first of this outbreak, took place less than a week after Mayor Bill De Blasio issued an emergency statement requiring measles vaccines for all children in four postal codes. Brooklyn.

A group of parents sued the city's health and mental hygiene department for carrying out mandatory vaccinations, saying the current outbreaks were "insufficient to justify these drastic emergency measures" and " to override people's rights ".

The city's board of directors will decide on Wednesday whether to extend the emergency declaration, reports the Associated Press.

In Rockland, the county had previously announced a state of emergency prohibiting unvaccinated children from accessing any indoor public spaces. But a group of parents filed a lawsuit, claiming that the 26 March order "does not achieve any valid public purpose" and deprives children of the right to education. A state judge subsequently blocked the application of the ban, saying that the small number of measles cases was not enough for the county to declare the state d & # 39; emergency.

Day argued on Tuesday that the outbreak should have been considered a sufficient cause to warrant an emergency declaration.

"Despite all our efforts, this epidemic will not go away," he said. "If something is accelerating now, as we feared, we have seen 33 new cases since we declared the state of emergency canceled for three weeks." In short, we have seen this happen . "

The new ordinance takes effect while the state of emergency is the subject of an appeal, according to the county – and only a few days before the beginning of the Passover, when many Jewish families will go to visit their families and gather in synagogues.

According to officials, about 28 percent of the country's children are not vaccinated, NPR reported. Experts recommend a much higher vaccination rate – more than 90% – to achieve what is called "collective immunity" and prevent the disease from spreading.