The United States has recorded 2,981 cases of monkey pox and its health authorities are confident that increased vaccinations and testing will contain the current outbreak, government COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha said on Sunday.
“We have intensified vaccination, treatments and tests, and we will continue to evaluate all kinds of possibilities. Right now I think we can contain it, but obviously if we need new tools we will turn to them, ”he said on CBS, quoted by Eph.
White House COVID czar Dr. Ashish Jha on monkeypox:
“Whether we declare a public health emergency here or not will be based on the facts on the ground and what the declaration will allow us to do.” pic.twitter.com/tA6DuQStJJ
— The PostMillennial (@TPostMillennial) July 24, 2022
At this time, according to its data, the country has the capacity to carry out 80,000 tests a week and has “more than 300,000 vaccines”, to which “hundreds of thousands will be added in the coming days and weeks”.
Already on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that this week the first two cases of monkeypox in children had been detected.
“I think monkeypox can be contained. Definitely. And the way to do it is with a very simple and direct strategy, which is to make the tests accessible. We’ve done it. And now they are much more frequent and common,” Jha said today on the “Face the Nation” program.
For the United States, “a coordinated and international response is essential to stop the spread of monkeypox, protect communities at higher risk of contracting the disease and combat the current outbreak,” as Raj Panjabi had said this Saturday, director of pandemic response at the White House National Security Council.
With information from Eph.
