More cases of monkeypox in Germany have been reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in the past few days. It put the number of people affected on its website on Monday at 21. The evidence comes from Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt. The RKI was aware of 16 cases of the virus infection on Friday.

According to the RKI, what is special about the cases is that the patients had not previously traveled to countries in Africa where monkeypox is endemic. In addition, many transmissions could apparently have happened in the context of sexual activities. “As far as is known, most of those affected do not become seriously ill,” it said.

Experts had expected the number of cases to continue to rise given the unusual outbreak in several countries with more than 250 confirmed cases to date. Experts suspect that the virus has been circulating unnoticed for a while. They assume that the outbreak can be contained. According to current knowledge, the RKI estimates the risk to the health of the general population in Germany to be low.