Updated: April 24, 2019 / 3:56 PM
The City of New York has issued out civil summonses to a total of 12 people it claimed were not complying with a mandatory measles vaccination order as the number of recorded cases in the city’s worst outbreak since 1991 rose to 390, according to data released on Wednesday.
The highly contagious and in some cases deadly virus began last October in New York City, with the majority of it confined mainly to children based in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn.
According to a statement by the city’s Health Department, two of the 61 additional cases confirmed since Thursday were in pregnant women.
Earlier this month, the Health Department took the unusual steps by issuing out an emergency order that requires unvaccinated people in the affected neighborhoods to get vaccinated for measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, unless they could prove they had immunity.
The 12 people that defied the order must attend a court hearing and face a fine of up to $1,000 if found to be noncompliant.
As of today, the outbreak in New York City is known as one of the largest of several outbreaks nationwide, with 2019 right on track. New York is set to break the record for the state with the most measles recorded in the United States in a year since the country declared the disease got eliminated back in 2000.