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Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state disaster emergency in response to a surge of measles cases across rural New York and neighboring Pennsylvania. The executive order grants expanded authority, allowing EMTs, paramedics, pharmacists, and community midwives to administer vaccines, and enabling nurses to conduct standing orders for testing. The state now reports one hundred and ten confirmed cases, more than double the total from the previous year, and the outbreak is largely driven by local spread in rural communities. The health commissioner emphasized that measles is almost one hundred percent preventable with the MMR vaccine, which has been available since nineteen seventy‑one. She warned that the current rise—nearly three thousand and seven hundred cases nationwide this year—marks a departure from the historic average of fewer than one hundred cases per year. Rapid immunization and testing are essential to curb the spread and protect vulnerable populations.

By Marcus E. | JQJO News