W'burg Yeshiva Let Three Dozen Kids Come To School Unvaccinated

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Two more Williamsburg schools were closed by the city's health department on Thursday for flouting measles vaccine rules, including letting almost three dozen unvaccinated children go to school.

UTA of Williamsburg-Yeshiva Torah V'Yirah on Bedford Avenue and UTA 212 on Williamsburg Street both were not following a health commissioner order not to let unvaccinated children in certain zip codes return to school until the end of the measles outbreak, which has infected 588 people as of this week.

The department has closed 12 schools in Brooklyn since April, when it announced that schools found not in compliance would immediately be given a violation or face closure. Another school, Central UTA Boys Division on Wythe Avenue, was shut down on Tuesday.

“The spread of measles may be slowing down but we are not,” Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said. “This is a message to all schools that have been ordered to exclude unvaccinated children — we will not stop our enforcement until the outbreak comes to an end. School staff must do their part to help us end this outbreak and keep New Yorkers safe."

UTA of Williamsburg was closed because it allowed unvaccinated children and staff on site and did not give the department sufficient proof of immunity for a child that was at the school, health officials said. UTA 212 allowed 35 students who were unvaccinated or did not have the required dose of the vaccine to attend school.

Both will not be allowed to reopen until the Health department reviews and approves a "corrective action plan" that addresses its failure to comply.

All of the other schools that have been closed down by the health department before this week have had their corrective action plans approved and were allowed to reopen. They are still being monitored by the department, officials said.

Certain zip codes in Brooklyn are still under an emergency order from Mayor Bill de Blasio surrounding the outbreak, which requires people that are unvaccinated to get vaccinated or face $1,000 fines. The department has given out more than 100 summonses to people that did not follow this order.

About 74 percent, or 437, of the 588 measles cases so far are in the zip codes that are under this order, though a small number of cases have been found in other neighborhoods, including 12 in Sunset Park and one in Manhattan.