A panel of global health experts will meet on Thursday to decide if COVID-19 is still an emergency under the World Health Organization’s rules, a status that helps maintain international focus on the pandemic.
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New infections with monkeypox are steadily declining in Spain, which has recorded the world’s second-highest tally of cases in this year’s global outbreak, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Monday.
More than 41,000 cases of monkeypox and 12 deaths have been reported from 96 countries, with the majority of cases from the United States, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
Bavarian Nordic, the maker of the only approved monkeypox vaccine, said on Wednesday it was exploring the viability of using technically expired doses to help bridge a growing gap between demand and supply due to the current outbreak.
Switzerland plans to procure 40,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine as well as 500 units of an antiviral drug, the government said on Wednesday.
India confirmed its first monkeypox death on Monday, a young man in the southern state of Kerala, in what is only the fourth known fatality from the disease in the current outbreak.
There have been more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox reported globally from 78 countries, with the majority in Europe, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
Scientists advising the World Health Organization (WHO) on monkeypox say the window is closing to stop its spread, with cases currently doubling every two weeks, raising concerns that it will take several months for the outbreak to peak.
The European Commission urged the 27 EU members on Wednesday to take a more forceful and coordinated approach towards monkeypox now that the World Health Organization has declared it a global health emergency.
The Biden administration estimates it may need nearly $7 billion to deal with the monkeypox outbreak in the United States, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.