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Health officials in New York and California have sounded alarm over the spread of the monkeypox virus, declaring it a threat to public health.
In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed said the city will declare a local public health emergency effective August 1.
“This virus affects everyone, but there are serious cases in our LGBTQ community, action is needed, we need more vaccines,” she tweeted.
The mayor also said in a blog post that the city’s Latinx community accounts for 30% of cases. [its] population. ”
Monkeypox Vaccine: US Health Authorities Allow Over 800,000 Vaccines
“Right now, the most important need is for more vaccines. The federal government distributes vaccines to state health departments, and then the California Department of Public Health allocates them to counties such as San Francisco. We cannot control the amount of vaccines we receive,” she said. “San Francisco needs more help and we need more action, which is why we are declaring a regional emergency.”
The emergency order will go into effect on Monday and must be approved by the oversight board within a week.
According to NBC Bay Area, San Francisco is now More than 280 infections have been confirmed.
Health officials expect that number to rise in the coming weeks.
The move comes as the Biden administration is considering declaring a public health emergency for monkeypox in the coming days.
There are now more than 4,900 confirmed cases of monkeypox and orthopoxviruses across the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
California accounts for nearly 800 of these cases, while New York has over 1,200.
New York City asks who to rename Monkeypox because of stigma
On Thursday, the Empire State Health Commissioner declared monkeypox an “imminent threat to public health.”
“Based on the continued spread of this virus, which is spreading rapidly and affecting communities predominantly identified as men who have sex with men, and the need for local governments to vaccinate, monkeypox has declared an imminent threat to the public health of the State of New York,” State Health Secretary Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement. “This proclamation will allow response and prevention efforts to be made after other federal and state funding sources are maximized to protect all New Yorkers and ultimately limit the spread of monkeypox in our communities. It means that local health departments working in the United States can access additional state reimbursements.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Thursday that 110,000 monkeypox vaccine doses had been secured for the state and would be delivered in the next four to six weeks.
“More than a quarter of all cases occur in the United States, and New Yorkers, especially the LGBTQ+ community, remain the hardest hit,” the governor added. “We will continue to advocate for the federal government to distribute vaccines fairly based on the burden of disease affecting New York.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced on Thursday that an additional 786,000 doses of the vaccine would be deployed nationwide.
“Our goal is to stay ahead of this virus and end this outbreak. We have a strategy to deploy these additional vaccine doses in a way that protects at-risk populations and limits the spread of the virus. We will distribute it fairly.” “These vaccines are the result of years of federal investment and planning.”
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Becerra told reporters by phone that the Biden administration “has done everything it can at the federal level… working with our state and local partners, and with affected communities, to ensure that we are pre-emptive and able to stop this outbreak.” We will be able to finish it,” he said. .”
Louis Casiano of Fox News and Associated Press contributed to this report.