City Closes W'burg Daycare For Flouting Measles Outbreak Orders

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — A childcare facility on Ross Street is the first to be shut down by the city for not following orders during a measles outbreak that has now reached 329 cases in the neighborhood's Orthodox Jewish community.

United Talmudical Academy, a facility for those ages 2 to 5 at 75 Ross St., was closed by the health department for repeatedly refusing to show officials its medical and attendance records, the department announced Monday.

It is one of 24 yeshivas and day care programs that have not complied since the department upped the stakes for schools allowing unvaccinated children to return to class against the city's orders, but is the first to be closed down. The 23 other facilities were given violation orders, officials said.

“This outbreak will continue to worsen, and the case count will grow if child care programs and schools do not follow our direction,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “It’s crucial in this outbreak that child care programs and schools maintain up to date and accurate immunization and attendance records. It’s the only way we can make sure schools are properly keeping unvaccinated students and staff out of child care centers to hasten the end of this outbreak.”

The closure also comes a week after Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency surrounding the outbreak in Williamsburg. The declaration required anyone who has not been vaccinated to do so within 48 hours or face a $1,000 fine.

Since last week, there have been 44 new measles cases in the outbreak.

Most of those were in patients who were infected before the declaration but had not been diagnosed yet, but six were new, officials said.

“While we expect to see an increase in case count over the next several weeks due to exposures that occurred prior to the emergency declaration, we know that increasing vaccination rates is the definitive path to ending this outbreak,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Dr. Herminia Palacio.

United Talmudical Academy will be monitored by health department staff during the closure and will not be allowed to reopen until its employees submit a "corrective action plan," health officials said.

The school did not return a request for comment.

Most of the measles cases so far were found in unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated people. 284 of the 329 cases so far were in those under 18 years old.

So far, nobody in Brooklyn has died from the disease, but 25 have been hospitalized and six were sent to the intensive care unit, the health department said.

The measles outbreak has also spread in Rockland County, where officials declared a state of emergency last month, and other places across the country. It has been linked to trips to Israel, which is currently suffering from a large outbreak, as well as the U.K. and the Ukraine.