New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Friday declaring a state disaster emergency as a fourth New York county detected the polio virus in its wastewater.
New York's Department of Health said Friday that the executive order will expand "the network of polio vaccine administrators with the addition of EMS workers, midwives, and pharmacists" and also authorize medical providers "to issue non-patient specific standing orders for polio vaccines."
The order also requires polio vaccine administrators to send data to the state, which the health department says will help officials "focus vaccination activities where they are needed most."
"On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice," New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement. "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 commissioner added.
The health department said Thursday that officials had detected the polio virus in wastewater from Nassau County, after it had previously also been detected in wastewater from Rockland, Sullivan and Orange counties.
The state has confirmed one case of polio so far, when a person was found with the virus in Rockland County in July. The incident marked the first confirmed U.S. case of the virus in over a decade.
The health department warns that "for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected."
"Polio is a dangerous, debilitating, and life-threatening disease. Spread from person-to-person, poliovirus enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected individual. People can spread the virus even if they do not know they are sick, and asymptomatic spread is a high concern among health officials," the health department said.
As of August, state data showed that in some New York City neighborhoods, fewer than 70 percent of kids have been vaccinated against polio.
The CDC recommends that children receive four doses of the polio vaccine: including doses at 2 months old, 4 months old, 6 through 18 months old, and 4 through 6 years old.
"Most adults in the United States were vaccinated as children and are therefore likely to be protected from getting polio," according to the CDC.
When reached for comment, the New York Department of Health referred Newsweek to the statement it released Friday.
Newsweek has also reached out to Hochul's office for comment.
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