New monkeypox vaccine clinic to open in Fresno County

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- In addition to five existing monkeypox vaccine sites in Fresno County, a new clinic is set to open at the LGBTQ+ Resource Center to provide access for those who need vaccines most.

The Resource Center on Fulton will offer vaccines by appointment on Mondays and Thursdays, plus during Art Hop on September 1st.

Health department data show there are 13 confirmed cases of the monkeypox virus in Fresno County so far.

"This is a scary time," said Julio Romero with Fresno EOC Health Services. "It's great because we want to continue to offer any and all possible resources, especially to our LGBTQ partners out in the community."

There are over 1,000 vials of the monkeypox vaccine for Central California.

As of last week, 730 vials have been allocated for Fresno County, 176 for Tulare County, 60 for Merced County, 20 for Madera County, 20 for Kings County, and none for Mariposa County.

Health officials there say they have requested doses from the state.

The good news, those vials can now be stretched further to protect more people from the virus. In most cases, a dose will now be one-fifth of the vial and will be placed under the skin like a TB test.

"One vial used to be one dose for one individual and one vial now is five doses for five separate individuals," said Joe Prado from Fresno County Public Health.

For those who aren't classified as at-risk or in contact with someone who is, health officials say the concern is minimal.

"You don't necessarily need to lose sleep over this," said Dr. Rais Vohra, interim Public Health Officer. "We have vaccines. We have antivirals much, much faster than we did with COVID. A lot of the people that we are seeing, in fact all of the people that we are seeing are not hospitalized."

You can find a list of the locations of the other clinics here.