As the number of confirmed monkeypox cases rose to more than 1,300 in California on Aug. 9, health officials and the LGBT community are demanding the federal government step up its response to the outbreak.
Those 1,300 cases account for about 20 percent of the United States caseload, according to Dr. Vivek Jain, a disease control expert who testified at an informational hearing of the state Senate Select Committee on Monkeypox on Tuesday.
Public health officials from four California counties reported there were 647 confirmed cases in Los Angeles, 501 in San Francisco, 98 in San Diego, and 70 in Riverside.
“These numbers are being updated daily due to the speed at which new cases are occurring, and I’m strongly supportive of the emergency declarations that have been made by the City of San Francisco, California state and the federal government in recent days,” Jain said….