State health officials announced New Jersey’s first measles case for 2026 on Wednesday, hours after a legislative hearing that touched on Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s plan to increase state funding for immunization programs by nearly $4 million.
A Hudson County man was diagnosed with measles following a trip abroad, according to the state Department of Health, which urged people to remain current on their vaccinations and be on the lookout for symptoms: fever, runny nose, cough and eventually a telltale rash.
The infected man visited Newark Liberty International Airport’s terminal B on April 14 between 5:50 a.m. and 9 a.m., state officials said. He was also at the Hackensack University Medical Center’s pediatric emergency room from around 11 p.m. on April 17 through 3:15 a.m. the following day, they said.
New Jersey counted a dozen measles cases in 2025. Cases around the nation have continued to escalate in recent years across several states, with more than 2,200 recorded last year and at least 1,700 cases diagnosed nationwide by mid-April, health officials said.
Health Commissioner Raynard Washington said these trends underscore the need to invest in New Jersey’s immunization system. If untreated, measles can cause severe complications, including pneumonia and swelling of the brain, and in pregnant people can result in miscarriage, premature birth and a low-birthweight baby.
“Vaccines remain essential and highly effective tools to prevent illness. With statewide vaccination rates declining, the Sherrill administration and our department are committed to ensuring all New Jerseyans who want a vaccine, can get one,” he told members of the Assembly budget committee Wednesday.
Lawmakers are now reviewing the $60.7 billion spending plan Sherrill proposed earlier this year and must craft and adopt a final budget before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
Under Sherrill’s plan, the state would boost spending on its vaccination program from $1 million this year to $3 million to fund more shots for adults without insurance coverage. Her budget also provides $4.4 million, an increase of $1.9 million, to modernize the state’s immunization information system, which helps health care workers monitor who needs shots and when they are needed.
New Jersey is also slated to receive some $17.6 million in federal funding for the national vaccines for children program, which pays to immunize kids who aren’t covered by insurance. Washington called this funding “critical” and said the children’s initiative is “a program our country should be proud of.”
“Unfortunately our country does not have a vaccines for adults program,” Washington said, which is why the state is increasing funding for this work.
Washington said the programs are especially important as vaccination rates decline in New Jersey and nationwide. The Garden State lost ‘herd immunity’ status last year, meaning the level of immunization coverage is no longer robust enough to prevent some diseases from spreading in the community.
Less than 92% of youngsters have been vaccinated against measles, Washington told lawmakers earlier this year, while herd immunity for that disease — one of the most contagious — requires 95% of people to be immunized. While some parents have concerns about vaccines, others just forget or get confused by the schedule, he said, making updates to the immunization information system so important.
“We see what happens when we don’t have the right coverage we need to protect communities,” Washington said, noting that kids get sick, miss school and struggle academically. “And the last thing we want is kids dying in our state from infectious disease when we can prevent them,” he said.
Assemblyman Gabriel Rodrigues (D-Hudson) urged Washington to work with schools to help educate parents on the need. “I never would have thought that we’d be discussing measles and deaths as a result of unvaccinated children,” he said.
While some Republican lawmakers have questioned the need for more spending on vaccine programs, Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Essex) focused on a subset of the allocations intended to pay for additional health department staff. He suggested the money would be better spent on certain community based programs, many of which were cut under Sherrill’s proposal.
“This is not an anti-vax conversation,” Barlas said. “What I’m having a hard time reconciling is, we have a tough budget year,” he said, reiterating the Sherrill administration’s message, “but you are also increasing allotments for payroll while cutting programs.”
Washington said some of the staff funding was needed to replace federal revenue — which will soon disappear — that had been used to pay the workers in the wake of the pandemic. “Investments in our state’s immunization registry are essential to core public health operations,” he said, adding, “this is so the system is functional.”
