More measles cases are reported in Lebanon, Lancaster, and Berks Counties

State health officials have reported five new measles cases in three counties as Pennsylvania faces a growing outbreak in Lebanon County.

Last week, 11 measles cases were reported in Lebanon County. This week, health officials identified an additional case in the county located east of Harrisburg.

Three more cases were reported in Lancaster County, just south of Lebanon County, and another was reported in Berks County, which borders both.

It’s unclear how many of the cases were connected; health officials said they were investigating whether patients had come into contact with each other. The state has not provided further detail about those affected.

State officials said the first case in Lebanon County was detected on April 23. Three people with measles in the county were hospitalized, and staff from the state Department of Health conducted contact tracing and found several more residents with “mild” cases of measles.

The highly contagious virus can linger in the air for up to two hours and sicken 9 in 10 unvaccinated people who come into contact with it. None of the 16 patients identified in recent weeks were known to be vaccinated.

The new cases bring the total measles cases identified in Pennsylvania this year to 28. In all of 2025, the state reported 16 total cases.

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In February, Lancaster County saw an outbreak of measles that sickened eight people and infected another person in Chester County.

Around the same time, Montgomery County reported three unrelated measles cases in residents, connected to an outbreak at Ave Maria University, a small Catholic college in Florida.

Two more cases connected to the Ave Maria outbreak were also reported in visitors to Chester and Montgomery Counties.

State officials encouraged Pennsylvanians to ensure they are vaccinated against measles, and have organized immunization clinics in Lebanon in the wake of the outbreak. Typically, children receive two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine at around a year old and then between the ages of 4 and 6.

» READ MORE: What are the measles vaccination rates in your district? See how your school compares.

State officials said that nearly 94% of kindergarten students statewide were vaccinated against measles in the 2024-2025 school year, which should help limit the number of cases in the state.

But a recent Inquirer analysis found that measles vaccination rates have been dropping across the state for years.

Nearly 50 counties, including Berks, Lebanon, and Lancaster, had kindergarten immunization rates below 95%, the threshold epidemiologists say is necessary to prevent virus from spreading in a community. In Lancaster County, just 88.5% of kindergarteners were vaccinated against measles.