The U.S. government on Wednesday announced it would distribute monkeypox vaccines across the country to stop its spread.

The government said it would focus on people most at risk and communities with the highest number of cases.

According to the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will immediately send 56,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine to areas with high transmission.

It added that an additional 240,000 doses would be distributed over the next few weeks, with even more to come this summer and fall.

The White House said a combined 1.6 million additional doses would become available over the coming months.

According to the latest count from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the states with the highest numbers of monkeypox cases include California, New York, Illinois and Florida, and Washington D.C.

“We are recommending that vaccines be provided to both people with known monkeypox exposures who are contacted by public health and also to those people who have been recently exposed to monkeypox,” said the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky. 

The latest CDC data showed that since the first monkeypox case was confirmed in the U.S. on May 18, 306 cases had been reported in 28 states as of Tuesday. 

(Xinhua/NAN)