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A school-aged, unvaccinated child died at a local hospital in West Texas where they had been receiving treatment for measles – marking the second death of a minor in the state linked to the ongoing outbreak.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday on X that he was in Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, to meet with families in the community. He said he had spoken to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to offer continued support and that teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teams had been sent back to the state. Kennedy noted in his post on X that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” and added that the HHS is partnering with Texas health officials to better combat the measles outbreak in the state and has deployed teams from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the area. Source also said that Kennedy planned to attend the child’s funeral on Sunday.

Aaron Davis, vice president of UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, told CNN in a statement: “We are deeply saddened to report that a school-aged child who was recently diagnosed with measles has passed away. The child was receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized. It is important to note that the child was not vaccinated against measles and had no known underlying health conditions.”

Texas’ first measles death linked to the ongoing outbreak was in an unvaccinated school-aged child in February, with another death in New Mexico remaining under investigation. The measles outbreak – now spanning Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and possibly Kansas – reached at least 569 cases Friday, according to data obtained from state health departments.

In Texas, health department data shows that nearly all outbreak-related cases were in unvaccinated people, and 70% were among children and teens. Many of those cases have broken out in West Texas, with Gaines County accounting for nearly 66% of cases.  In Lubbock County, which accounts for nearly 7% of the confirmed cases in Texas, UMC Health has started offering drive-up measles screenings at both of its 24/7 urgent care centers.

As of Friday, New Mexico has reported 54 cases, and Oklahoma reported 10 cases (eight confirmed and two probable). Cases in Kansas, which the state health department said may be linked to the outbreak, reached 24 as of Wednesday.

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Life-threatening weather conditions continued across multiple states on Sunday, with the threat of severe flooding in Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas, and tornado watches in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida (per ABC News.)

Areas that had been previously affected by high winds and heavy rains since midweek saw additional inclement weather from the same relentless storm system that caused widespread power outages and voluntary evacuations. At least 18 people in multiple states have died from weather-related causes since Wednesday.  NPR reported that the severe storms continued throughout the South and Midwest on Sunday,with powerful tornadoes from Mississippi to Kentucky.

In a video message posted on X, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned residents Sunday morning that the state was in for another day or more of bad weather: “Please, everybody be careful, We’ve tragically lost two individuals, two Kentuckians, two children of God already, and we don’t want to lose any more.” WLKY reported that one of the fatalities was 9-year-old Gabriel Andrews, who was swept away by floodwaters as he walked to his school bus stop in Frankfort Friday morning

The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed that 10 people had died in storms in that state ,with half of the deaths in Tennessee occurred in McNairy County. The McNairy County Emergency Management Agency said in a social media post that an EF3 tornado in the southwestern Tennessee county on Thursday damaged 332 buildings, destroying 108 of them.

According to the National Weather Service, parts of Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee had received more than a foot of rain, while areas of Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri saw more than 10 inches. More than 54,000 customers in Arkansas had no power early Sunday afternoon, while thousands were also in the dark in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, according to the website PowerOutage.us.

The NWS said in a Sunday forecast that the storm system — along with the threats of heavy rainfall and flash flooding — will move east into the Southeastern U.S. throughout the day, and forecasters also warned that flooding could continue for several days in the affected areas even after the heavy rains have dissipated.

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