March 13 (Reuters) – South Carolina health officials reported three new measles cases on Friday, pushing the total number of infections linked to the outbreak to 996, the state health department said.

Officials have warned that the widening outbreak could last weeks or months amid lagging vaccine uptake.

Here are more details:

* At least 30 people are in quarantine after being exposedto the virus and another four people are in isolation. * Of those infected, 930 were unvaccinated, 18 werepartially vaccinated, 26 were fully vaccinated and 22 hadunknown vaccination status. * The outbreak, which began in October, has been centeredin the northwest part of the state, which includes Greenvilleand Spartanburg. * Most cases were reported in children in the five-to-17age group, followed by those below five years of age. * New CDC Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya earlier thismonth urged Americans to get vaccinated against measles, saying it was thebest protection against the disease. * There were 1,362 confirmed measles cases reported in theU.S. in 2026 as of March 12, CDC data showed.

(Reporting by Sahil Pandey in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

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