NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Health officials in New York City announced on Friday that they are receiving 6,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine as the city has now reached a total of 87 suspected cases — a 123% rise over the last week.
The new batch comes a day after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the federal government was expected to send the state over 8,000 doses of the vaccine.
"New York State and the Biden Administration will continue to work together on vaccine distribution plans to ensure New York State receives enough vaccine supply to protect New Yorkers, especially those New Yorkers in communities with high transmission rates," Hochul said.
The city's Department of Health said it will make appointments available when the vaccine is ready next week.
Though anyone can get and spread monkeypox, the department said the current cases are primarily spreading among the social networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
Just before the city marked it's official Pride weekend, the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic, the lone clinic offering the vaccine, was forced to stop walk-in appointments due to high demand.
The New York Times reports that hundreds of men who waited in line turned up as walk-ins, leading the line to close to new people after only about 90 minutes.
But all the appointments quickly filled up that day, and the last round of appointments was Monday. "Until we receive more supply we are unable to release additional vaccination appointments," said Patrick Gallahue, a spokesman for the city’s health department, in an email.
The need for the vaccine is met as monkeypox continues to spread worldwide.
To date, more than 5,000 monkeypox cases have been reported from 51 countries worldwide that don't normally report the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A two-dose vaccine, Jynneos, is approved for monkeypox in the U.S. The government has many more doses of an older smallpox vaccine — ACAM2000 — that they say could also be used, but that vaccine is considered to have a greater risk of side effects and is not recommended for people who have HIV. So it’s the Jynneos vaccine that officials have been trying to use as a primary weapon against the monkeypox outbreak.
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