COVID and monkeypox cases keep health officials wary
There were 2,975 new COVID cases and 12 deaths reported, bringing the total number of lives claimed by the coronavirus to 20,663 in Massachusetts since the beginning of the pandemic.
The number of those hospitalized with COVID hit 665, with 70 in Intensive Care Units. Nineteen were intubated, meaning they had a tube inserted into their trachea for ventilation.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is monitoring monkeypox, whose U.S. cases have doubled over the last week to 20 in 11 states.
Last month, a Massachusetts man tested positive for monkeypox.
Of the approximately 800 cases globally, no deaths have been reported, officials said. But the disease can be very painful and leave scars from what often looks like a rash.
The CDC has detailed information about 17 of the Americans with monkeypox. Sixteen were men who had sex with men. Fourteen had traveled internationally in the 21 days before their symptoms began, and three were immunocompromised.
A total of about 400 contacts of 13 patients who also are risk of becoming infected with monkeypox have been identified, in an effort to determine how many vaccines will be needed.
About 1,200 vaccines and 100 treatment courses have been delivered to eight states thus far, Dr. Raj Panjabi, the White House’s senior director for global health security and biodefense, told reporters Friday.
Genetic analysis of recent monkeypox cases suggests there are two distinct strains in the U.S., health officials said, raising the possibility that the virus has been circulating undetected for some time.
Many of the U.S. cases were caused by the same strain as recent cases in Europe, but a few samples show a different strain, federal health officials said. Each strain had been seen in U.S. cases last year, before the recent international outbreak was identified.