California declares state of emergency over monkeypox

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Monday over monkeypox — an action intended to boost California’s efforts to secure vaccines and manage the outbreak.

California is the second state to make an emergency declaration because of the disease after New York, which took the step over the weekend. Local emergencies were declared by New York City and San Francisco.

“California is working urgently across all levels of government to slow the spread of monkeypox," the governor said in a statement.

The state will ensure those most at risk for the disease would be the focus of vaccine efforts, using testing, contact tracing and community partnerships developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

New York and California have been epicenters for the virus.

As of Monday, New York City reported nearly 1,500 monkeypox cases, with most cases occurring among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

Nearly 800 cases have been confirmed or suspected in California as of Thursday, according to health authorities. Los Angeles and San Francisco have the most cases.

While the state has been under growing pressure to declare a public health emergency, state health officials on Friday offered an update on the vaccine response but stopped short of making the declaration.

Vaccinations to help control the spread of the disease have been in short supply. The state so far has received 61,000 doses of the vaccine from the federal government, according to the Newsom administration. The state has distributed more than 25,000 vaccine doses and will make additional allocations in the coming days and weeks.

Monday’s proclamation enables Emergency Medical Services personnel to administer monkeypox vaccines that are approved by the FDA, similar to the statutory authorization recently enacted for pharmacists to administer vaccines.

Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who on Monday called for an emergency budget appropriation of $38.5 million to help counties respond to monkeypox, praised Newsom for making the emergency declaration.

“The monkeypox outbreak is an emergency, and we need to use every tool we have to control it,” Wiener said.