The CDC confirmed 66 new U.S. measles infections on Friday, “raising the country’s 2026 total to 982.” CIDRAP has the news.
The agency also confirmed that seven new outbreaks have happened thus far in 2026, “compared with 49 that began in 2025.” 870 of the cases this year (89%) are “tied to an outbreak, which the CDC defines as three or more related cases. The vast majority (92%) of those are tied to outbreaks that began in 2025 and have continued into this year.” The country is on track to “easily surpass” last year’s total of 2,281 measles cases.
The U.S. did not top 1,000 measles cases last year until late April. 25% of the cases this year have been in children under five years old, and 84% have been in children and young adults through age 19. South Carolina has been the hardest-hit state, with 632 confirmed CDC cases. Only 10 states and Washington, DC have “maintained at least 95% coverage of the [MMR] vaccine among kindergartners, which is the level considered to provide ‘herd immunity’ to protect the larger community.”
93% of the 973 case patients involved in the South Carolina outbreak are unvaccinated. Elsewhere, Arizona, Washington, Florida, and California reported new cases last week.
