The measles outbreak in West Texas didn’t happen just by chance.

Experts are still cautioning against attending big sporting events during the pandemic, but say there are ways to make it safer if you go.

Coronavirus infections are surging again in the region of northern Italy where the pandemic first took hold in Europe, renewing pressure on hospitals and health care workers. Well after Europe seemed to have largely tamed the virus that proved so lethal last spring, newly confirmed infections are reaching unprecedented levels in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office, urged governments to be “uncompromising” in controlling the virus. So far in the new surges, deaths have not increased at the same pace as infections. And nursing homes, which were ravaged by the virus last spring, have gotten better at controlling infections.

iStock/Yarinca(CNN) - There has been a small increase in vaccine exemption rates among kindergarteners in the United States, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, among those vaccine-exempt kindergartners, only 0.3% had a medical exemption while 2.2% had a nonmedical exemption, according to the report. States with lowest and highest vaccine coverageThe new report summarized vaccination coverage data on about 3.6 million kindergartners during the 2018-2019 school year. The report also included vaccine exemption data on some 3.6 million kindergartners in all 50 states. However, "if it's difficult to obtain an exemption, then you have lower rates of refusal and lower rates of disease," he said.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThe number of measles cases reported in the United States has fallen the last few weeks, but experts say it's not time to declare victory. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday that the number of measles cases this year reached 1,109 across 28 states as of Thursday. While it's a smaller number of new cases than was typical in the spring, this year's outbreak hit the greatest number of measles cases reported in the United States since 1992 and since the measles virus was eliminated from the country in the year 2000. "We haven't seen measles epidemics in the United States for over 20 years." Because although measles cases have declined, they haven't disappeared," he said.