Adams declares monkeypox state of emergency in New York

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency over monkeypox on Monday — a move that lets him suspend local laws and enact new rules to better manage the city's outbreak.

“This order will bolster our existing efforts to educate, vaccinate, test, and treat as many New Yorkers as possible and ensure a whole-of-government response to this outbreak,” Adams said in a statement.

The mayor’s emergency executive order comes after the city's health department declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Saturday. Under that city declaration, health commissioner Ashwin Vasan can issue orders amending the city’s health code to slow the spread of the virus.

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency on Friday, a move she said would pressure the federal government to send additional vaccines to the state. Hochul's action enabled Adams to issue the local emergency declaration.

Adams’ order Monday builds on the city and state declarations and directs city agencies to “take all appropriate and necessary steps to preserve public safety and the health of their employees, and to render all required and available assistance to protect the security, well-being and health of the residents of the City.”

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio used the same mechanism to expand his mayoral authority when Covid-19 first began spreading in the city.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, similar emergency declarations let officials suspend certain contract-procurement rules, require the electronic reporting of Covid-related deaths, and mandate vaccination or testing for staff in public healthcare settings.

Though monkeypox poses a unique threat, the city could take similar actions now that Adams and the health department have declared a state of emergency, for example, by requiring data collection around hospitalization and vaccination.

As of Monday, New York City reported 1,472 monkeypox cases, with most cases occurring among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Cases are continuing to rise in the city and across the country, and actual case counts of the virus, which can affect anyone, are likely much higher than those reported due to lack of diagnosis.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who has been critical of the city's response to the outbreak, praised the mayor's emergency declaration, calling it an "absolutely necessary" move.

"This does send a very powerful message that the city takes this crisis seriously, that it treats it as a crisis, and it sends a message to the public that this is something that people need to pay attention to," Levine said.

Amid continued demand, the state will receive 110,000 additional monkeypox vaccine doses from the federal government in the coming weeks, and 80,000 of those doses will go to the city. New York City now accounts for about a quarter of cases nationwide, according to Adams.

The mayor’s executive order is set to expire in 30 days, unless it is rescinded or extended.