The United States on Thursday declared monkeypox a public health emergency, in a move that would free up funds and help collect data and deploy additional staff to fight the disease.
"We stand ready to take our response to the next level in tackling this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and take responsibility for helping us fight this virus," Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra said by phone.
On Tuesday, California declared a state of emergency to address the outbreak of monkeypox, while US President Joe Biden appointed a presidential adviser on coordination to address this disease.
California became the third state to raise its health response to the rapidly spreading disease, within four days, according to the New York Times .
The announcement followed similar measures taken by New York on Friday and Illinois on Monday.
President Biden has appointed Robert Fenton, the national coordinator for the response to monkeypox, in an effort to improve the federal government's response to the outbreak, according to the Wall Street Journal .
The White House said Fenton, a regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former acting president of the agency, will serve as the monkeypox coordinator.
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