San Francisco, United States of America (USA)- Mayor London Breed, has declared the State of Emergency in response to the growing spread of monkeypox cases across the city.
The emergency declaration includes measures such as mobilizing city resources, streamlining city staffing, and raising awareness about how everyone can stop the spread of monkeypox.
“San Francisco is declaring a Local Public Health Emergency for monkeypox. This declaration will go into effect starting August 1 and will allow us to prepare and dedicate resources to prevent the spread. This virus impacts everyone, but our LGBTQ community is seeing significant cases and we need action, we need more vaccines.
A few weeks ago, the San Francisco Department of Public Health requested 35 000 vaccines to start to get at those most at risk for contracting the virus. So far, in the last three weeks, we have barely received a third of that request.
That is not nearly enough, and the reality is we are going to need far more than 35 000 vaccines to protect our LGBTQ community and to slow the spread of this virus. We are aware that there is a vaccine shortage across the country, but despite that, these vaccines need to be distributed quickly to places like San Francisco that have a disproportionate share of cases,” said the Mayor.
Last week, San Francisco leaders and 2SLGBTQIA+ advocates protested in front of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ regional office against what they saw as a sluggish response to the monkeypox outbreak.
No emergency closures or restrictions have been planned, as monkeypox spreads primarily through very close, skin-to-skin contact, but local health organizations in San Francisco have been advocating for easier, broader access to testing and more vaccine doses.
“We want the flexibility to be able to use our resources to best serve the public and protect health. We also want to affirm our commitment to the health of our LGBTQ communities in San Francisco, as we have historically always done as a city. San Francisco is an epicenter for the country. 30 percent of all cases in California are in San Francisco,” said San Francisco’s Health Officer; Susan Philip.
According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the city has recorded 261 cases so far, out of about 4 600 across the country.
On Thursday, New York’s state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Mary Bassett, declared monkeypox an imminent threat to public health.
