Utah aquarium, pediatric care facility among recent measles exposure sites, health officials say
SALT LAKE CITY — Health officials have listed a slew of new locations across northern and southern Utah where people have been exposed to measles, all occurring within the past two weeks.
The new locations were announced Friday by the Salt Lake County Health Department, after state health officials reported in the latest measles data dashboard that Utah has reached 405 cases of the illness since the outbreak began last June.
Ninety-eight Utahns have become infected with measles within the past three weeks, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
Among the identified locations are a gymnastics meet, a grocery store and the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.
The Salt Lake County Health Department issued a measles exposure alert warning that the virus was detected at the following places:
- Feb. 28, Zion’s Invitational Gymnastics Meet in Hurricane, Washington County, all day.
- March 2, Wasatch Pediatrics in Cottonwood Heights, 10:21 a.m.–1:03 p.m.
- March 2, Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, 12 p.m.—4 p.m.
- March 2, Chevron gas station, 8655 Highland Drive in Sandy, 3:30 p.m.—5:30 p.m.
- March 2, Ream’s food store, 8725 Highland Drive in Sandy, 4 p.m.—6:30 p.m.
- March 3, Los Garcia mexican restaurant in Sandy, 1:30 p.m.—4:30 p.m.
Measles is a highly contagious virus and can spread easily through the air, causing severe illness among those infected.
Health officials warn the public to be cautious of symptoms such as a fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a rash.
In the event that symptoms began to develop, those individuals are asked to stay home and contact their health care provider before visiting a clinic, health officials said.
More than 1,300 confirmed measles cases have been reported in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While Utah is one of the states being hit the hardest amid multiple outbreaks across the county, South Carolina is seeing the brunt of the cases in 2026, with 664 as of March 13.
Health officials continue to urge the unvaccinated to get two doses of the MMR vaccine, stating that it’s the strongest protection against the virus.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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