Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, says there are currently no plans to declare monkeypox a public health emergency. While the World Health Organization and the United States have recently done so, Tam said there is little benefit to declaring a public health emergency in Canada because of the structure of regional and provincial public health authorities. He said a federal emergency declaration would include the Emergency Act — which has not even been invoked to deal with Canada’s nearly two-and-a-half-year-old COVID-19 pandemic. Tam said that so far, Canada has already been able to mobilize vaccines, therapeutics and funding to deal with 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. “To date our discussions have focused on testing, working with community organizations to raise awareness of ways to limit the spread of the virus, and developing the Imvamune vaccine and therapeutics,” Tam said. “As the global outbreak of monkeypox remains a serious concern, by focusing efforts on affected communities in Canada and globally, including vaccinations, we have an opportunity to limit the spread.” Today, about 99,000 doses of Imvamune have been deployed in the provinces and territories and more than 50,000 people have been vaccinated, Tam said. Public Health Canada’s Deputy Director, Dr. Howard Njoo, said the approach continues to vaccinate the highest-risk communities first, and there are currently enough doses to do so. Tam says about 31,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported worldwide, with 1,059 in Canada, mostly in Ontario. While cases of the virus first appeared in Quebec, Ontario has since surpassed it in the number of infections. To date, there have been 28 hospitalizations — two in intensive care — from monkeypox in Canada and no deaths. Tam said it’s too early to tell if the number of cases has increased in Canada.
