Health workers said 166 cases of monkeypox have now been diagnosed in people across Washington. They noted that 88% of those cases are in King County alone.
Unlike places like California and New York, health workers said there are no current plans to declare a state of emergency.
“We just have not had the roadblocks and issues at this point that lead us as a state, with our laws, to have to declare a state of emergency,” said Andrew Rose with the Washington Department of Health.Among the difficulties health workers face is trying to convince the public that monkeypox isn’t just a virus that affects the LGBTQ community.
“It hurts the entire community because we do not know as a public health system who has a certain condition and disease so we can help monitor, help support,” said Umair Shah, Washington state’s secretary of health.Across the state, only 6,800 doses are currently available.For now, though, only certain at-risk people are allowed to get the monkeypox vaccine.
“As more vaccine becomes available, we’ll be opening up more broadly to anybody with high risk of exposure, but there’s just not enough vaccines at this point,” said Michelle Roberts with the Washington Department of Health.©2022 Cox Media Group
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