NEW CITY – The spread of measles in Rockland County, concentrated on the Spring Valley-Monsey area, has become so severe that county officials have increased school exclusions from the current 70 percent to 80 percent vaccination rate.
The new mandate will affect more schools meaning more students will have to remain home and be unable to attend school.
All schools in the Village of New Square and any school with less than
an 80 percent measles, mumps, rubella vaccination
rate in the impacted area will be required to keep unvaccinated or under-vaccinated
students home until 21 days have passed since the last confirmed measles
case in the county.
Until now, the exclusion rate required schools with less than a 70 percent
MMR vaccination rate to keep those students home.
“We continue to encourage everyone to be up-to-date with the MMR vaccine to help protect them in case of any future exposure to measles in Rockland,” said County Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert. “Measles is highly contagious, so anyone who is not protected angst measles is at risk of getting the disease, and they may spread measles to people who cannot get vaccinated because they are too young or have specific health condition.”
Persons are considered protected or immune to measles if they have had physician or provider-confirmed measles or have a lab test confirming immunity. Those born before 1957, and those who have received two doses of measles, mumps rubella vaccine are also considered immune; however, there is a very small chance that in this outbreak they may still get measles, but a much less severe case and much less likely to spread to others, Dr, Ruppert said.
