The Biden administration is planning to lift the public health emergency for monkeypox next month, as cases have continued to drop off since a peak in early August.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Friday that the administration will let the emergency declaration for monkeypox, which the World Health Organization recently renamed to “mpox,” expire on Jan. 31, 2023.
MORE THAN 6 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN THE FLU THIS SEASON: CDC
“Given the low number of cases today, HHS does not expect that it needs to renew the emergency declaration when it ends on January 31, 2023. But we won’t take our foot off the gas — we will continue to monitor the case trends closely and encourage all at-risk individuals to get a free vaccine,” Becerra said in a statement.
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The administration declared the public health emergency back in August to support efforts to combat the monkeypox outbreak, expanding the availability of a monkeypox/smallpox vaccine.
The U.S. has reported nearly 30,000 monkeypox infections and 17 deaths since the first case was documented in May, most of those being men who have sex with men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
