Rise in monkeypox cases, US declares health emergency in the country
Washington: The United States on Thursday declared Monkeypox a public health emergency. This announcement will help in deploying federal funding and resources to combat this virus.
According to AFP, Secretary of Health and Human Services Javier Becerra said, “We are ready to take our response to this virus to the next level, we are taking concrete steps against Monkeypox seriously and appeal every American to take the situation seriously and help us to combat over this virus.”
The announcement will be effective initially for 90 days but can be extended further.
On Thursday, 6,600 cases were reported across the country, nearly a quarter of which were from New York State. Experts, however, believe that the actual number in the current outbreak may be much higher because the symptoms may be subtle, including single lesions.
Clinics in big cities such as New York and San Francisco say they have not received enough of the two-dose vaccine to meet demand. Some had to then stop giving the second dose to ensure the supply of the first dose.
The White House said it had made available more than 1.1 million doses of the vaccine and helped increase the domestic diagnostic capacity to 80,000 tests per week.
