Measles outbreaks in Utah, Arizona, and Washington state continue to grow as Lancaster County, Nebraska, posts its first case since 1990 and the first for the state this year.

As of last week, 416 measles cases in 14 states had been confirmed in the United States in 2026. Last year, the nation totaled 2,255. 

The Utah Department of Health & Human Services has documented 21 new measles cases in the past week, for a total of 237 in this outbreak. Twenty-one people have been hospitalized. Most cases (67%) have occurred in the southwest part of the state, followed by Utah County (35 cases) and Salt Lake County (18). Of all cases, 61% were in children, and 89% were in unvaccinated people. Last year’s tally was 195, with the 2026 total growing to 42. 

Arizona’s measles cases so far this year, meanwhile, have doubled, from 12 to 24, according to the latest Arizona Department of Health Services update. More than two-thirds of those cases (17) have been in Mohave County, which is part of a two-state outbreak that includes southwest Utah, across the border. Last year Arizona confirmed 220 infections.

In northwest Washington, the Snohomish County Health Department yesterday noted three more measles cases, for a total of six since the outbreak began two weeks ago. The illnesses have been associated with unvaccinated children at a church in Mukilteo, as well as an elementary school in Edmonds and a children’s dental practice, an emergency department, and a kindergarten in Everett.

In Lancaster County in southeast Nebraska, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department has logged the state’s first case of the year, warning that the patient had visited a Walmart and an urgent care center while infectious. The patient is a vaccinated adult with no recent travel out of state.

California audits schools with low vaccination rates

In related news, California yesterday announced an audit of 428 schools because over 10% of their kindergartners or seventh-graders weren’t fully vaccinated last year. The state may dock Americans with Disabilities Act payments to schools that admitted unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students. The kindergartner vaccination rate fell nearly a half a percentage point in 2023-24, to 93.7%. 

California’s health department documented 25 measles cases last year and three this year, with an unvaccinated student in Napa County diagnosed last week after being exposed in South Carolina, home to the country’s largest outbreak since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.