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(Trends Wide) — The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Friday that it does not plan to renew the public health emergency (PHE) declaration for monkeypox.
“Over the next 60 days we will focus on supporting the jurisdictions and the Department to ensure that the expiration of the PHE does not impede response efforts,” the agency said in a statement. “The expiration of the PHE will signal that we are exiting the emergency phase of the outbreak and transitioning to the continued and urgent work of vaccinating those at risk and providing treatment and other support to those affected so that we can continue the progress towards a lasting end to the transmission of monkeypox”.
The statement was issued in early August amid criticism that the government had been slow to act on the outbreak, which mainly affected men who have sex with men.
As of Thursday afternoon, 29,603 cases have been reported across the country, with 17 deaths. However, an average of fewer than 10 cases per day is now being reported, down from the peak of more than 600 per day in early August.
“Given the low number of cases today, HHS does not expect a renewal of the emergency declaration to be necessary when it ends on January 31, 2023,” US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement Friday. “But we will not take our foot off the accelerator: we will continue to closely monitor case trends and encourage everyone at risk to get vaccinated for free.”
One criticism of the Biden administration’s response to the outbreak is that HHS waited more than three weeks after the first confirmed US case to order bulk stocks of the monkeypox vaccine, in part because to concern for its useful life. Since then, more than 855,000 vials of the Jynneos vaccine have been shipped to jurisdictions across the country. An intradermal vaccination strategy allows healthcare workers to obtain up to five doses from each vial.
To help combat potential discrimination and stigma associated with the virus’s original name, monkeypox, the World Health Organization announced Monday that “mpox” is the preferred term for the virus and disease.
Trends Wide’s Jacqueline Howard, MJ Lee and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.
