SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s measles infection count continues to grow as a new year has settled in.
In the past three weeks, 51 additional people have become infected with the illness, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services’ website.
Utah health officials reported updated case counts Tuesday, with a total of 201 cases — 147 of those are within the southwest Utah health district.
However, measles is highly contagious, and its impact is being felt in nearly every portion of the state.
The Summit County health district had been one of the five regions in Utah without a measles infection — but over the weekend its health department announced its first confirmed case.
A student within the South Summit School District was identified as the first measles case in Summit County amid the current nationwide outbreak.
Health officials said that it was confirmed the infected student previously attended “school or school activities” while infectious. They added that exposures may have occurred during school hours at South Summit Elementary School on Jan. 5.
Elsewhere in the state, the Utah County Health District has reported 24 cases, with Wasatch County at nine and Salt Lake County with six cases. Less than 20 of Utah’s confirmed cases have resulted in hospitalizations, according to the department’s website.
The border of Utah-Arizona makes up one of the two hot spots in the country for measles, along with South Carolina, where more than 300 cases of the virus were confirmed over the holidays, according to the Associated Press.
Last month, state epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen said Utah’s measles case count for 2025 was the most cases in a year in more than three decades.
Health officials continue to warn that measles is an extremely contagious respiratory disease — causing serious medical complications, including blindness and even death, among vulnerable age groups and those with weakened immune systems.
Health officials say vaccination is the best way to prevent a measles infection with two doses of the MMR vaccine said to provide 97% protection against the virus.
According to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, 185 of the 201 people who have been infected with measles were unvaccinated.
More information on the nationwide measles outbreak can be found on the CDC’s website.
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