Health Minister of Indian state of Kerala, Veena George, said on Thursday that genome sequencing will be conducted to identify the variant of the virus that the person diagnosed with monkeypox (mpox) in the state has contracted.

Congo’s South Kivu province is at the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has called a global health emergency

A gold-mining town in eastern Congo has emerged as a hotspot for mpox as a new strain spreads, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Kamituga is part of the South Kivu province, where more than 6,000 people are suspected to have contracted the virus.

The Rwanda Ministry of Health on Thursday said that the country has started a vaccination campaign against mpox with 1,000 doses of the vaccine it obtained from Nigeria. On the other hand, Health Minister of Kerala Veena George said that the state would conduct genome sequencing to identify the variant of the virus.

She said that the 2B variant of the Mpox virus has a lower potential for spread. However, the 1B variant of the virus, found in Africa, has a higher potential for spread.

The African health agency says that Rwanda has started a vaccination campaign against mpox with 1,000 doses it obtained from Nigeria. Dr.