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Health Dept.: 4 more Williamsburg schools close for failing to provide vaccine records

The Health Department closed more Williamsburg schools for failing to provide vaccination records.

News 12 Staff

Apr 19, 2019, 10:06 AM

Updated 2,063 days ago

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The Health Department closed more Williamsburg schools for failing to provide vaccination records.
It's all part of the emergency order issued by the department on April 9.
The Health Department is urging everyone who has not been vaccinated against measles to do so, especially with the holiday weekend.
Now four schools, including 590 Bedford Ave., 68-84 Harrison Ave., 241 Keap St. and 720 Wythe Ave., have been added on top of United Talmudical Academy which was closed on Monday.
The city says all were unable to provide vaccination records to show that students are immune.
United Talmudical, which was closed Monday, was able to re-open Thursday under city monitoring.
The department is asking parents as part of the emergency order to vaccinate their children or face fines as steep as $1,000 per child.
Now the city tells News 12 that summonses were issued for three children who were exposed to the virus but not vaccinated. The Health Department says it did a rigorous audit of each family in the community.
"We have our disease detectives that work around the clock identifying potential contacts to meet Jose, so we used our contact tracing as a way to identify individuals who did not receive vaccines as ordered," says Demetre Daskalakis, Deputy Commissioner of Disease Control.
Measles is highly contagious and since the outbreak there have been 326 cases in the borough with at least six hospitalized in intensive care.
A lawsuit was filed against the city and its order, but that was dismissed by a judge Thursday.
The order remains in effect and the Health Department expects to continue seeing cases due to the measles’ 21-day incubation period.