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AJetBlue planewas quarantined at New York City’sJohn F. Kennedy International Airporton Sunday night after a case of measles was suspected on board.
“After reports of a potential medical concern onboard, flight 410 from Santo Domingo to JFK was requested to hold for medical services out of an abundance of caution so a customer could be examined,” a spokesperson for JetBlue told PEOPLE in a statement.
According toNBC News 4 New York, passengers on board were not aware of why the plane was being held at the terminal, but rumors were swirling that there was a suspected case of measles.
After everyone was examined, “all customers were cleared and the flight deplaned normally,” the Jet Blue representative said.
News 4 also reports that the boy who was suspected of having measles was a member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and had been flying for a Passover program. According to the outlet, the program director claims JetBlue wrongly profiled him as having measles because of his religious group.
There have been more than 400 cases of measles confirmed in New York City since October, theNew York Timesreports, with the majority occurring in the Hasidic Jewish community.
According to Jewish news outlet,The Yeshiva World, community activists immediately contacted the boy’s family’s pediatricians and doctors and were able to provide proof that the family had been vaccinated for measles.
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News of the measles scare comes amidst the largest outbreak of the disease in the U.S. since 1994, with theCenter for Disease Controlreporting 704 cases of measles in 22 states so far this year. More than 400 of those cases are located in New York.
According to theTimes, more than 500 of thepeople with measles had not been vaccinated, and 66 people have been hospitalized as a result.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency due to the outbreak, and threatened to impose $1,000 fines on people across Brooklyn if they refused to vaccinate their children. On Monday morning, the cityshut down two schoolsin the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn because they did not comply with the emergency orders.
Rockland County, N.Y., which has also reported cases of measles, attempted to ban unvaccinated children from all indoor public places, including schools, grocery stores, restaurants and religious areas in an attempt to stop the outbreak from spreading, but a court blocked the order, theTimesreports.
Afterward, they banned anyone who was experiencing measles symptoms or had been exposed to the disease from being in public places, imposing fines of $2,000 per day for those who violate the order.
According to the CDC, symptoms of measles include fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes. Three to five days after the first symptoms present themselves, a red, splotchy rash will appear on your face and spread over your body.
“Vaccination is the best way to prevent measles,” the CDC writes. “Anyone who has received two doses of a measles-containing vaccine is considered immune and highly unlikely to get measles.”
source: people.com
