More than a thousand students and staff were quarantined this week at two Los Angeles universities as officials in the city grapple with a measles outbreak.
The quarantines at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and California State University, Los Angeles, which combined have 65,000 students, came as a UCLA student contracted measles and attended class on three days — April 2, 4 and 9 — while contagious.
About 325 of those affected by the quarantine were allowed to return to campus by Friday afternoon after proving they were immune to the disease, according to The Associate Press. The quarantine was implemented on Wednesday.
Those still under quarantine are ordered to stay at home and avoid contact with others. They are also barred from traveling by public transportation, including planes, trains, buses or taxis. Authorities have warned that violators could be prosecuted.
Those covered by the quarantine were determined based on possible interactions with the UCLA student who had measles or another person who visited Cal State-L.A. while sick with the disease earlier this month.
The quarantine is expected to end Tuesday at UCLA and Thursday at Cal State-L.A.
Nearly 700 cases of measles have been reported so far this year in the U.S., including 38 in California and five in Los Angeles County.
The spike is blamed largely on parents not vaccinating their children after believing misinformation about the shots’ side effects.
Most of the cases have been in New York and have centered on two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in the state.
