Measles Outbreak: At Least 1 More In Rockland

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — There are now 144 confirmed cases of measles in Rockland County as well as 2 suspected cases that the Rockland County Department of Health is continuing to investigate. These confirmed cases are the total since the outbreak began in October and are not all active cases.

New York City, though, is catching up. As of March 5, there have been 133 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens since October, city health officials said. That's up 12 cases in a week.

Rockland is one of the vectors that got the city's outbreak started.

"The initial child with measles was unvaccinated and acquired measles on a visit to Israel, where a large outbreak of the disease is occurring. Since then, there have been additional people from Brooklyn and Queens who were unvaccinated and acquired measles while in Israel. People who did not travel were also infected in Brooklyn or Rockland County," the health department said on its website.

Most of the cases in Rockland and NYC have involved members of the Orthodox Jewish community. A full 21 cases were linked to one yeshiva in Williamsburg that refused to follow the city's public health order to keep unvaccinated students home.