Rockland County Measles Cases Hit 290

NEW CITY, NY — Rockland County Health officials put the total of measles cases reported since the local outbreak began in October at 290 as of Aug. 2. That's an additional 7 cases in the 7 days since officials let the State of Emergency expire July 25 without renewing it.

At the time, County Executive Ed Day said the health department would still conduct its inspections at all schools to ensure strict compliance with vaccination requirements.

"Our vigilance will not be compromised or slowed in any way," he said.

Rockland County is still on the Centers for Disease Control's active outbreak list.

The CDC reported Monday that as of Aug. 1, 1,172 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 30 states. That represents an increase of 8 cases over the previous week. The CDC said this is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

Three-quarters of those national cases are in New York.

According to the state Health Department, as of Aug. 2 there had been since the outbreak started 379 confirmed cases of measles in New York State outside of New York City (290 in Rockland County, 55 in Orange County, 18 in Westchester County, 14 in Sullivan County, 1 in Suffolk County and 1 in Greene County.) As of July 29, there had been 642 confirmed cases in NYC since September.

Rockland health officials, doctors and clinicians have administered about 21,000 measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations since the outbreak began. That's almost 20 times the typical
number given out per year.