As monkeypox continues to spread across the state and in the Bay Area, testing and vaccinations are ramping up.
Quest Diagnostics says it is expanding its monkeypox testing via a PCR test. The company expects to be able to process 60,000 tests a week by the end of this month.
Lab workers will swab patients then send the samples to a lab in Los Angeles.
As of this week, there were 186 probable cases of monkeypox in California.
While it’s not as transmissible as COVID-19, it is spread through intimate contact such as sex or taking care of someone with active lesions or a rash.
The White House has said it wants to get the word out about the monkeypox vaccine and will host LGBTQ influencers to aid the campaign, though names have not yet been announced.
On Wednesday, tempers flared in Berkeley, where a local spa was accused of using the monkeypox vaccine to boost its business. Hundreds of people waited for hours outside the Steamworks bath house in hopes of getting a free monkeypox vaccination while watching some skip the line by paying a fee.
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