New York declares monkeypox health emergency

(CNN) — New York City officials declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Saturday, saying the city is the epicenter of the state’s outbreak and the move will boost efforts to help slow the spread of the disease.

“We estimate that approximately 150,000 New Yorkers may currently be at risk of exposure to monkeypox,” they said in a statement. joint statement Mayor Eric Adams and Dr. Ashwin Vasan, commissioner of the city’s department of mental health and hygiene. “This outbreak must be addressed with urgency, action and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the gravity of the moment.”

The statement It takes effect immediately, according to the statement.

It comes just one day after New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order declaring a statewide disaster emergency, saying that “more than one in four cases of monkeypox in this country” are in the state. Among several other actions, the governor’s order expands the number of people eligible to administer monkeypox vaccines, requires providers to submit vaccine data to the state health department, and will boost ongoing response efforts, including efforts to obtain more vaccines and expand testing capacity, the governor’s office said.

Other leaders in the US, and around the world, have sounded the alarm about monkeypox as the number of infections continues to rise and the vaccine supply does not meet the demand. Experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have stressed that the monkeypox outbreak must be taken seriously and handled more rigorously, while federal officials continue to weigh a declaration of public health emergency throughout the country.

San Francisco on Thursday became the first major US city to declare a local health emergency in an effort to strengthen its preparedness and response amid “rapidly escalating cases” and high demand for the vaccine, it said. the city. The declaration takes effect on Monday.

“We know that this virus affects everyone equally, but we also know that those in our LGBTQ community are at higher risk right now,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement. release. “Many people in our LGBTQ community are scared and frustrated. This local emergency will allow us to continue to support those most at risk, while better preparing for what is to come.”

In Washington, the federal government continues to monitor the response to monkeypox and will use it to consider whether to declare the outbreak a public health emergency, US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday.

“We will weigh any decision about declaring a public health emergency based on the responses we are seeing across the country. The bottom line is that we need to get ahead of ourselves and be able to end this outbreak,” he stated.

Former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned earlier this month that it may be too late to contain the outbreak and told CBS: “The window to control this and contain it has probably closed.”

Last weekend, the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern after convening its second emergency committee on the issue.

The WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “risk to the public health of other states through the international spread of disease” and “potentially requires a coordinated international response”.