NYC Is Under A Monkeypox State Of Emergency: Here's What It Means

NEW YORK CITY — New York City is under a local state of emergency because of ever-rising monkeypox cases, announced Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams' executive order issued Monday dovetails with a growing list of similar local, state and global actions and pronouncements about monkeypox, a once-rare virus that has now infected at least 1,472 New Yorkers, according to health data.

The mayor's state of emergency will allow him to suspend local laws and issue rules to help stop monkeypox if the outbreak continues to spread out of control.

"This order will bolster our existing efforts to educate, vaccinate, test, and treat as many New Yorkers as possible and ensure a whole-of-government response to this outbreak," Adams said in a statement.

"In partnership with federal, state, and local officials we will continue to respond with the urgency required to keep people safe and this order is another tool to help us do so.”

The city now accounts for 25 percent of monkeypox cases nationwide and roughly 150,000 New Yorkers are considered at risk, officials said.

The virus's continued spread has alarmed many New York City officials who have warned it soon become "uncontainable," especially amid problems with vaccine supply, outreach and testing and treatment shortages.

Nearly all cases so far have been among men who have sex with men, although health officials stress anyone can contract the virus.

Many LBTQIA+ people have criticized city, state and federal officials for a perceived discriminatory lack of action. The increased pressure and growing monkeypox cases appear to have prompted state and local officials in the past week to take more visible steps, although not all of those were met positively.

The steps began with state health Commissioner Mary Bassett declaring monkeypox an "imminent threat to public health." The declaration allowed the city's health department, and others across the state, to be reimbursed for monkeypox-related responses.

Gov. Kathy Hochul followed Bassett's declaration with a statewide executive order declaring a monkeypox "disaster" in New York State. Her order greatly expanded the number of health care professionals who can provide monkeypox vaccinations and required those shots to be reported to the city and state — a crucial step to tracking how many people gained immunity to the virus.

City health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan built off Hochul's order when Saturday he released a public health declaration of emergency.

Vasan's declaration allows him to issue emergency orders — similar to those related to masking under the COVID-19 pandemic — under the city's Health Code, as well as tweak it to set up measures that slow the spread.

Adams' emergency declaration Monday is separate from Vasan's declaration in that potentially extends to all local laws.

But, still, all the emergency declarations and measures do have some degree of overlap, which in essence creates a safety net to streamline public health actions such as vaccination drives.

The city is due to receive 80,000 monkeypox vaccine doses from the federal government out of 110,000 going to the state.

Vaccine eligibility, for now, only applies to people who fit the following conditions:

• Gay, bisexual, or other man who has sex with men, and/or transgender, gender non-conforming, or gender non-binary.
• Age 18 or older.
• Have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days.

For more information about monkeypox, including vaccinations, click here.