New York, Sep 14 (IANS): The number of new cases of monkeypox in the US has slowly decreased in the recent weeks, with instances recorded in the first week of September being roughly half as high as they were at their peak one month ago, the media reports said.

But the recent death of a Los Angeles County resident was a tragic reminder that the outbreak is ongoing and still poses risks, reported CNN.

"There is some hope around these cases leveling off. That should not be anybody's solace that this outbreak is done," David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, was quoted as saying at a briefing.

"We still have to ramp up our efforts to respond to this outbreak. And there are many, many data questions, clinical care questions, research questions that remain to be answered about this very unusual outbreak of a known virus over the decades that is presenting itself very differently in the US," Harvey added.

This week, a media report said that the Los Angeles County authorities were looking into a second probable monkeypox-related death.

Chief Medical Director Rita Singhal of the county's Public Health Department had said details were unavailable at this early stage of the investigation.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a total of 52,997 people have been infected with the monkeypox virus.

Of the cases registered in the last four weeks, 70.7 per cent came from the US and 28.3 per cent from Europe.