Ed Day, Rockland County Executive
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2019
Contact: John Lyon 845-638-5645
New City, NY, - County Executive Ed Day issued a second declaration of a local State of Emergency (see attached), renewing the original declaration that was due to expire at 11:59 pm, Thursday, April 25, 2019. The renewed State of Emergency takes effect at 12:00 am, Friday, April 26, 2019, and will remain in effect until 11:59 pm, Saturday, May 25, 2019.
"Over the last 30 days since my original declaration we have lost the one thing we couldn't afford to lose, valuable time. With nearly 50 new confirmed cases in less than a month what we predicted has come true; this outbreak continues to rage despite the best efforts of our Department of Health," said County Executive Day. "The disagreement amongst the various courts has undoubtedly caused confusion and contributed to this situation continuing. However, I pledge that we will continue to do everything within our power to combat this deadly disease and bring it to a stop once and for all."
There is no new Directive as part of the renewal of the State of Emergency. It does not contain the Measles Outbreak Emergency Directive, prohibiting unvaccinated persons from entering indoor places of public assembly which was rescinded (4/16). However, the Rockland County Department of Health (RCDOH) will continue to enforce the new Commissioner's Orders that were announced last week. This State of Emergency serves to reaffirm the actions taken by RCDOH and support their efforts to combat this outbreak.
The first Order is a RCDOH Communicable Disease & Exposure Exclusion Order, which is a Commissioner's Order, and which has three components:
- Any person diagnosed with the measles or exposed to a person diagnosed with the measles as evidenced by laboratory evidence or a measles tracing investigation conducted by RCDOH must be excluded from indoor and outdoor places of public assembly located in Rockland County for a period of up to 21 days.
- The individual is prohibited from going to or being present at any place of public assembly for any period of time with exceptions for medical care, emergency situations and court appointments.
- Individuals are required to cooperate with RCDOH public health authorities by providing information regarding details of one's illness, exposures and contacts.
Failure to comply can result in a $2,000 fine per violation per day. Parents and guardians served with this order on behalf of an exposed minor are responsible for compliance by their child.
Five of these Orders have been issued to those exposed to measles and to those confirmed to have the disease.
The second Order involves students who are required to have the proper MMR immunizations and to date have not demonstrated that the vaccines have been administered. New York State (NYS) Public Health Law Section 2164 and New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) Title 10, Subpart 66-1.6 requires mandatory immunizations to be in school unless the student has a medical or religious exemption.
"Many students, even in schools that have now achieved the required 95% vaccination rate, have not yet been immunized. This has to change," said Commissioner of Health Ruppert. "I have the authority from the State Commissioner of Health to exclude those children who are not up to date on their immunization. With this outbreak, I am implementing further exclusions of students without evidence of proper MMR vaccination effective immediately. This is addressed to the school administrators and principals."
The second Order is a Commissioner's Order, which has two components:
- Pursuant to an audit conducted by NYSDOH/RCDOH, schools/day cares are required to exclude from school/day care students who have been identified as having neither a valid certificate of immunization on file for the MMR vaccines or laboratory evidence of immunity against measles, mumps and rubella, nor a valid medical or religious exemption on file.
- Schools/day cares are required to submit to RCDOH a notarized affidavit sworn under penalty of perjury or if unable to take an oath, a notarized affirmation affirmed under penalties of perjury, identifying students who have been excluded from the school/day care.
Failure to comply can result in a $2,000 fine per violation per day. These Orders were delivered to 16 affected schools on April 16, 2019.
331 students were affected by these Orders.
19,279 MMR vaccinations have been given within Rockland County since the outbreak began in October of 2018. This number has increased by 2,321 since the declaration of the original State of Emergency on March 26, 2019.
"I once again thank the people of Rockland who have gotten vaccinated. It is only through your efforts that we can protect the health of Rockland's most vulnerable; the infants, infirm and immunocompromised," concluded Day.
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