US plans to declare monkeypox a public health emergency

(CNN) — The administration of President Joe Biden plans to declare monkeypox a public health emergency on Thursday, a source familiar with the decision told CNN.

The announcement would be made by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As monkeypox cases are on the rise in the United States, the government has come under fire for its handling of the outbreak. Some have even called on the administration to declare a national emergency without delay.

Political was the first outlet to report on the long-awaited statement.

The first case of monkeypox in the US was identified in mid-May. And, since then, they have detected more than 6,600 probable or confirmed cases in the country. In fact, all states report infections except Montana and Wyoming.

The action that the Biden administration would take would follow the precedent of the World Health Organization that declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. The WHO explains that this classification refers to “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “that potentially requires a coordinated international response.”

Some cities and states, including New York City, San Francisco, California, Illinois, and New York, have already declared monkeypox an emergency. This allows them to access funds and resources for their responses to the outbreak.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden named Robert Fenton as the White House’s national response coordinator for monkeypox. Fenton, a regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency that oversees Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada, will coordinate the federal government’s actions on the outbreak. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, serves as deputy coordinator.

Some public health experts have harshly criticized the Biden administration for not acting more quickly to address the crisis.

One of those reviews CNN reported hours earlier this Thursday, was that HHS waited more than three weeks after the first confirmed case in the United States to order that bulk stocks of monkeypox vaccine—which the government owns and stores in Denmark—be bottled and shipped to the country for distribution. The delay was due in part to concerns that once the vaccines were taken out of storage, they would lose years of shelf life.

CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.