B.C. conducting contact tracing for monkeypox cases

The B.C. government says its vaccination campaign against monkeypox is in full swing and that public health staff are conducting contact tracing for anyone who may have been exposed to the disease.

As of Wednesday, 61 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed across three health authorities in B.C.

Fifty-four cases have been confirmed in Vancouver Coastal Health, four are in Island Health, and three are in Fraser Health. No cases have been reported in Northern Health or Interior Health as of Friday.

The province says Health Canada has a "limited stockpile" of smallpox vaccine, which can be used to treat monkeypox.

The federal government distributes limited amounts of this vaccine to each province. As of Friday, B.C. has received 14,480 doses of the vaccine, which includes post-exposure doses.

As of Wednesday, B.C. has administered 7,200 of those doses. New vaccines are ordered weekly and are distributed to each health authority as needed by the provincial government.

The province says most of the vaccines have been sent to the Lower Mainland, where the majority of infections have occurred.

Monkeypox is not easily spread, according to the province, and requires long periods of skin-to-skin contact for infection.

Currently, only people who are at high risk of exposure to the disease are eligible for a vaccine.