WASHINGTON; The United States may experience more cases of monkeypox before the numbers decline, said Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"With the scale-up of testing and the scale-up of information, we believe that there will be more cases before there are fewer," Walensky told The Washington Post. Walensky stated that the CDC does not yet have clear forecasts on how terrible the situation may be. "I don't think we have a solid estimate right now," the CDC director said. She did, however, mention that the United States discovered two monkeypox cases in children for the first time on Friday.

The two cases are unrelated and are most likely the consequence of household transmission, as per CDC. The children are in good health and are being treated. Both are doing well, but they had contact with additional people, which the CDC is investigating, it added. 

As per CDC data, the United States has recorded over 2,800 confirmed monkeypox/orthopoxvirus cases thus far. The government has supplied 300,000 doses of a monkeypox vaccine and is attempting to expedite the shipping of 786,000 more doses from Denmark, said Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator. 

He stated that there is already enough vaccine on hand to vaccinate more than half of the eligible population in New York City and more than 70% of the eligible population in Washington, D.C.

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