California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a monkeypox state of emergency on Monday in a move aimed at bolstering vaccination efforts to slow the spread of an outbreak that has infected more than 5,800 Americans.
California, the nation’s most populous state, has confirmed 827 cases of monkeypox on Monday, the second-highest state count after the 1,390 infections documented in New York, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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On May 20, the first case of monkeypox in the United States was confirmed in Massachusetts, and five days later the first case was confirmed in California, in a person who had traveled abroad.
Spread through close physical contact, monkeypox tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions, although it is rarely fatal.
Newsom’s proclamation came nine days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency, the agency’s highest level of alert, over the rapidly spreading viral disease.
About 70 countries where monkeypox is not yet considered endemic have reported outbreaks, with global cases exceeding 22,100, according to a Reuters count published on Monday. A July 22 WHO report said only five deaths from monkeypox had been reported worldwide, all of them in Africa.
In order to expand inoculation against the disease, the California proclamation allows emergency medical personnel to administer federally approved vaccines, similar to the recently enacted legal authority for pharmacists to administer vaccines.
The state’s monkeypox response builds on programs developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor’s office said in a statement announcing the declaration.
Last month, California public health leaders urged the federal government to make more vaccine doses available in the state as soon as possible, and so far 25,000 have been administered in California.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a smallpox emergency last week in her state, which accounts for one in four U.S. cases documented so far.
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