OTTAWA-
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr Theresa Tam, said there were no plans at this time to declare monkeypox a public health emergency.
While the World Health Organization and the United States have done so recently, Tam said there is little benefit to declaring a federal public health emergency in Canada, due to the structure of authorities. regional and provincial public health departments.
She said a federal emergency declaration would involve the Emergencies Act — which hasn’t even been invoked to deal with the nearly two-and-a-half-year-long COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Tam said that so far, Canada has already been able to mobilize vaccines, treatments and funds to fight monkeypox.
Tam also said local and provincial authorities have more flexibility and have been able to respond to the increase in monkeypox cases. Local and provincial authorities could also decide to declare the virus a public health emergency at these levels, as many have done with COVID-19.
“Our discussions to date have focused on testing, working with community organizations to raise awareness of ways to limit the spread of the virus, and rolling out the Imvamune vaccine and treatments,” Tam said. “As the global outbreak of monkeypox continues to be a serious concern, by focusing efforts on affected communities in Canada and around the world, including with vaccinations, we have an opportunity to contain the spread.”
To date, about 99,000 doses of Imvamune have been deployed in provinces and territories, and more than 50,000 people have been vaccinated, Tam said.
Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, Dr Howard Njoo, said the approach continues to vaccinate high-risk communities first, and there are currently enough doses to do so.
Tam says there have been about 31,000 reported cases of monkeypox worldwide, including 1,059 in Canada, mostly in Ontario.
While cases of the virus began to appear in Quebec, Ontario has since surpassed it in the number of infections.
To date, there have been 28 hospitalizations – including two in intensive care – due to monkeypox in Canada, and no deaths. Tam said it’s too early to tell if the number of cases has plateaued in Canada.