State Disaster Emergency declared in New York

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — An Executive Order was issued Friday night, declaring the ongoing Monkeypox outbreak as a State Disaster Emergency in New York. The Executive Order enables the state to respond more swiftly to the outbreak and allows health care professionals to take additional steps that will help get more New Yorkers vaccinated.

Monkeypox State Disaster Emergency Executive Order

The Executive Order specifically extends the pool of eligible individuals who can administer Monkeypox vaccines, including EMS personnel, pharmacists and midwives. The order also allows physicians and certified nurse practitioners to issue non-patient-specific standing orders for vaccines and requires providers to send vaccine data to the NYSDOH.

"After reviewing the latest data on the Monkeypox outbreak in New York State, I am declaring a State Disaster Emergency to strengthen our aggressive ongoing efforts to confront this outbreak," Governor Hochul said. "More than one in four Monkeypox cases in this country are in New York State, and we need to utilize every tool in our arsenal as we respond. It’s especially important to recognize the ways in which this outbreak is currently having a disproportionate impact on certain at-risk groups. That’s why my team and I are working around the clock to secure more vaccines, expand testing capacity and responsibly educate the public on how to stay safe during this outbreak."

On Thursday, Gov. Hochul announced that the federal government had secured an additional 110,000 vaccine doses, resulting in a total of 170,000 doses to New Yorkers to date.

Earlier this month, NYSDOH launched a new SMS-text notification effort to deliver the latest Monkeypox information directly to New Yorkers. New Yorkers can sign up for text messages by texting "MONKEYPOX" to 81336 or "MONKEYPOXESP" for texts in Spanish. The text service will include alerts about cases, symptoms, spread, and resources for testing and vaccination.

NYSDOH’s dedicated website has free, downloadable materials including a palm card, information card, handout, and posters available in both English and Spanish. NYSDOH has already distributed these resources to LGBTQ+ organizations, local county health departments, healthcare providers, and businesses. NYSDOH has also engaged in a paid, digital advertising campaign to get information to communities experiencing higher rates of Monkeypox cases.

New Yorkers can learn more about New York State’s first vaccine allocation from the federal government here and the second allocation here.

For more information about Monkeypox, including case counts by county, treatment, and care, click here.