{"id":351989,"date":"2026-07-25T06:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T06:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351989\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T06:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T06:32:12","slug":"florida-ranks-5-for-u-s-measles-cases-in-2026-cdc-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351989\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida ranks #5 for U.S. measles cases in 2026: CDC Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Florida is in the top five states with the highest reported cases of measles in 2026, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Across the country, there have been 2,318 confirmed cases, already exceeding the total for all of 2025, which was 2,289.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The new data puts the U.S. at a 35-year high for measles cases. The last time cases were over 2,300 was in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The most affected group this year has been young people aged 5 to 19, who make up 49% of reported cases, according to CDC data. Roughly 93% of those infected were unvaccinated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Only seven states have managed to avoid the disease this year: Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire and West Virginia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida ranks #5 in confirmed cases so far in 2026, with 141. The majority are from Collier County, where\u00a0<a data-ylk=\"slk:Ave Maria University experienced an outbreak earlier this year;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\/news\/florida\/measles-outbreak-reported-at-southwest-florida-university\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Ave Maria University experienced an outbreak earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The other four states with the most measles cases are South Carolina (670 cases), Utah (522), Texas (188), and Virginia (176).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The CDC says herd immunity is usually reached when 95% or more of a community has received the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. Florida is 38th in vaccination rates among kindergarteners in the 2024-25 school year, with roughly 88.8% having received the vaccine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida experienced a staggering jump in cases over the last year, going from just 8 in 2025 to 141 confirmed cases in 2026. Data from the Florida Department of Health shows up to 155 cases of measles this year, but 14 have yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Aside from Collier County, which had the lion&#8217;s share of cases in Florida, Pinellas and Duval counties were tied for the second-most cases, with 6 each. Other counties in Tampa Bay that had confirmed cases include Polk, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Pasco.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Florida is in the top five states with the highest reported cases of measles&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67325,71149,28,1369,30,29,17196,82062],"class_list":["post-351989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ave-maria-university","tag-confirmed-cases","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-measles","tag-reported-cases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}