A child in the five boroughs has tested positive for monkeypox, marking the city’s first juvenile case since the outbreak began, officials said Friday.
The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported the case Friday morning. The child contracted the illness via a household contact, the department said.
The agency did not provide the child’s age or any other additional details about the case.
What You Need To Know
- The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported its first juvenile monkeypox case on Friday
- The child contracted the illness via a household contact, the health department said
- “While we understand the concerns of families, we also know that the overall risk of exposure for children in the city remains very low," the city's health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, said in a statement Friday
“There is a juvenile case of MPV (or monkeypox) in New York City,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, said in a statement. “While we understand the concerns of families, we also know that the overall risk of exposure for children in the city remains very low.”
As of Wednesday, one child in New York state outside of New York City had tested positive for presumed monkeypox, according to the most recent state health department data.
At a City Council hearing Wednesday morning, Vasan sought to assuage fears about monkeypox spreading in schools this fall.
“I’ll repeat what the state health commissioner said recently at a press conference: schools are not a major source of transmission,” the commissioner said. “We do not believe that this is going to be a major location of risk for MPV transmission.”
The city has, however, issued guidance to schools focused on maintaining safe environments and identifying signs and symptoms of the virus, he added.
Currently, only adult New Yorkers who meet certain criteria are eligible to receive the monkeypox vaccine, the health department noted in a press release Friday.
As of Friday, 2,888 New York City residents had tested positive for monkeypox.
As of Thursday morning, 156 of those residents were between the ages of 18 and 24, 1,157 were ages 25 to 34, 986 were ages 35 to 44, 369 were ages 45 to 54, 129 were ages 55 to 64, nine were ages 65 to 74, one was age 75 to 84 and two people’s ages were “unknown,” health department data shows.
And while the health department has been reporting new monkeypox cases on a daily basis, Vasan on Tuesday said data from recent weeks showed a “pretty steep decline in [the city’s] epidemic curve.”