New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sept. 9 declared a state of emergency amid evidence that polio is spreading in communities around the state. The move unlocks federal resources to help the state respond and boost vaccination rates.
Under the declaration, pharmacists, emergency medical personnel and midwives can now administer polio vaccines. The executive order also requires providers to send polio vaccination data to the state's health department.
"On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice," said Mary Bassett, MD, health commissioner at the state's health department. "If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real. I urge New Yorkers to not accept any risk at all."
The declaration came the same day state health officials reported that the virus had been detected in wastewater samples from Nassau County. Officials have also found the virus in sewage samples from New York City, Orange County, Sullivan County and Rockland County, where the nation's first polio case in nearly a decade was confirmed July 21 in an unvaccinated man. Health officials have suggested the Rockland County case may just be the "tip of the iceberg" with hundreds of other cases potentially going undetected in the state.
The threat of polio's resurgence is magnified by the many pockets of unvaccinated residents throughout the state. New York's polio vaccination rate is 78.96 percent. That figure is lower in many of the counties where the virus has been detected in wastewater. In Rockland County, for example, the polio vaccination rate is 60.3 percent, state data shows. Nationwide, polio vaccination coverage sits at about 93 percent, according to the CDC.