New York State declares disaster due to polio outbreak 

New York State officials have declared a disaster over the states polio outbreak where there has been one confirmed case and dozens of positive wastewater samples dating back as far as April, the Daily Mail reported.

The move was announced by Governor Kathy Hochul's office on Friday. In a release, officials say that move allows “necessary State agencies to take appropriate action to assist local governments and individuals in containing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from this State disaster emergency.”

The Empire state first detected a case of the devastating virus in Rockland County—just outside of New York City's Bronx borough—on July 21. In the time since, wastewater surveillance has also detected the virus within the city itself and in nearby Orange and Sullivan counties. On Friday, officials revealed that Nassau County, also just outside of the Big Apple, had detected the virus in its wastewater surveillance as well.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed in August that further investigation found at least 21 positive samples of the virus in New York. One of the samples was gathered as far back as April, meaning the devastating virus could have been circulating for months before its detection.

Last month, a local Rockland County official warned that while only one case had been detected so far, the true number of infected New Yorkers could be in the thousands. 

Only around one-in-every-1,900 polio infections in unvaccinated persons will result in paralysis, according to the CDC. Officials assure the public that a vaccinated person has little to worry about with the current outbreak. 

More than 90 percent of Americans are vaccinated by their second birthday—and many had to receive the shot to attend public school. 

There is no polio vaccine booster, and vaccination in infancy provides protection for a person's entire life.

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