TOKYO: Japanese economic revitalization minister YAMAGIWA Daishiro on Sunday showed a plan for the government to hold a meeting over monkeypox after the chief of the World Health Organization declared an emergency regarding the viral disease.

“The government plans to hold a meeting to establish a system enabling appropriate responses” over monkeypox, Yamagiwa, who is in charge of the government’s novel coronavirus measures, said in a television program.

Shigeru Omi, who heads the government’s COVID-19 response task force, said in the same TV program that he thinks monkeypox can be prevented globally if appropriate measures are taken.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference Saturday, “I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”

More than 16 million monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 75 countries and regions this year, according to Tedros.

JIJI Press