ISTANBUL 

A severe measles outbreak in Texas ended in August, yet new outbreaks across the US keep driving this year’s national cases to record highs, marking the highest level in years.

The yearly total, reaching 1,563 cases since January, marks the highest level in over 25 years since measles was declared eliminated in the US.

Since the end of August, an average of 27 new measles cases have been reported weekly, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A new outbreak has emerged in Ohio, cases are rising sharply in Minnesota, and over 150 unvaccinated schoolchildren in South Carolina are quarantined amid an ongoing outbreak, according to CNN.

Prior to this year, the US had seen only 10 significant measles outbreaks—defined by the CDC as involving more than 50 linked cases—since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. However, the current outbreak along the Arizona-Utah border is already the third major measles outbreak in the US this year.

More than 90 cases have been confirmed in the outbreak, at least 59 in Arizona and 36 in Utah, according to state health departments, with numbers still rising.

A measles case reported Thursday in Greenville County, South Carolina’s most populous county, is under investigation for a possible link to the Spartanburg outbreak, though the state health department said there are no known related cases elsewhere.