Updated Monday Feb. 2 – 3:25 pm
More than a dozen infants enrolled at a Santa Monica day care center were being quarantined today after a baby was confirmed to have contracted measles.
The baby, who is under 12 months old and too young to be vaccinated, is enrolled at the Santa Monica High School Infant Toddler Center, which serves school staff, community members and three teen parents who attend the high school, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District spokeswoman Gail Pinsker said.
Pinsker said 14 infants exposed to the baby will be quarantined for 21 days. The day care’s infant room will be closed until further notice, and the toddler room will be closed through Thursday, she said. The high school remains open.
A letter about the measles case was sent to parents of children enrolled in the day care this weekend, Pinsker said. The center serves 24 families with children from 6 weeks to 3 years old, she said.
Pinsker said the school district was working with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on how to proceed.
A baseball coach at Santa Monica High School came down with measles about a week and a half ago, health officials said.
The Department of Public Health last week reported a total of 15 people had contracted measles in the county, with 14 of them linked to a December outbreak traced to Disneyland.
None of the 15 people confirmed with measles were vaccinated, county officials said.
Those figures do not include patients in Long Beach and Pasadena, which operate their own health departments. Those cities have both reported two confirmed measles cases.
State officials have said there have been more than 90 confirmed cases of measles, stretching across eight states and Mexico. The state Department of Public Health has confirmed 79 California cases, the majority of which can be traced to Disneyland.
