San Francisco officials declare a state of emergency over monkeypox

Protesters in San Francisco.
(Image credit: Marlena Sloss for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

In San Francisco, officials declared a state of emergency on Thursday, as the number of monkeypox cases in the city continue to rise.

Now that there has been a state of emergency declaration, city officials can put more resources toward the outbreak. As of Thursday afternoon, there are 281 known monkeypox cases in San Francisco; that's 30 percent of all cases reported in California. It is spreading primarily among gay and bisexual men and transgender and nonbinary people, the Los Angeles Times reports. Several LGBTQ activists have been calling on the city to do something for weeks, including getting doses of the monkeypox vaccine; earlier this week, U.S. health officials said that roughly 800,000 doses will soon be distributed across the country.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.