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American Samoa Declares Measles Outbreak, Closes Schools

Fili Sagapolutele/AP
FILE -- Pago Pago Harbor on Saturday, May 11, 2019, in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

The government of American Samoa declared that the U.S. territory has an outbreak of measles, a move that will lead to the closure of public schools starting Monday and a ban on gatherings in parks.  

In its announcement Friday of the measles outbreak, the government says the territory has nine cases of the disease.

Five of those infected had been traveling outside the territory. In the neighboring independent nation of Samoa, more than 60 people have died, mostly children, from the measles and more than 4,000 were infected since the outbreak started in mid-October, health officials said.

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