California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a monkeypox state of emergency to help expand vaccination efforts as cases continue to rise across the state.
“California is working urgently across all levels of government to slow the spread of monkeypox, leveraging our robust testing, contact tracing, and community partnerships strengthened during the pandemic to ensure that those most at risk are our focus for vaccines, treatment, and outreach,” Newsom said in a release on Monday.
35-year-old Nigerian man living in Delhi, with no recent foreign travel history, tests positive for monkeypox
😱😵💫😵💫🥹 pic.twitter.com/G7fBb8QEnY— liberal_ex (@Lib_Exx) August 1, 2022
He continued, “We’ll continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccines, raise awareness about reducing risk, and stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization.”
The state of emergency declaration enables emergency medical services personnel to distribute monkeypox vaccines, along with deploying vaccine clinics through local and community organization partnerships.
The first California case of the current outbreak of monkeypox was confirmed on May 25. The total count in the state is now 825, compared to 5,811 cases nationwide.
So far, California has administered 25,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine, and received about 61,000 doses, Newsom said.
Man With MonkeyPox Speaks Out About His Symptoms: ‘It’s Such An Ugly Virus’
As we previously reported, a Houston Texas man, Wesley Wallace, recently did an interview with KHOU11 to bring more awareness to monkeypox. According to the Texas Department of Health, there are now 57 cases of confirmed monkeypox in the Houston region with 183 across the state.
“It hurts to exist. Because my face isn’t touching anything. It’s not like sleeping on a pillow, ‘Oh it hurts.’ It just hurts to exist to the open air,” Wesley Wallace said.
Man Shares His Journey With Monkeypox On Day 15.. pic.twitter.com/tAAq7jeExq
— DomisLive NEWS (@domislivenews) July 26, 2022
Wallace also says he believes he got the virus during July 4th weekend when he was at the bar. “I’m going to say I was probably kissing somebody that had it and didn’t know it, just based on where my initial lesions popped up,” Wallace said.
Wallace explains just being awake is excruciating. “As you can see, from the time it started, it’s just progressed and has gotten worse and worse,” Wallace said.
#Socialites, do you think we will be on another lockdown following this virus?