The World Health Organization chief said on Friday that mpox vaccines were set to arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the next few days to fight a new strain of the virus.

"We hope to have the first delivery in the next few days, and then it will build up," Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a press conference. Some 230,000 mpox doses are immediately available to be dispatched, added Tim Nguyen, unit head of Global Infectious Hazards Preparedness at the World Health Organization Emergency Programme.

The WHO has said that its partners can start buying mpox vaccines before they are approved by the U.N. health agency, lifting its usual rules in a bid to get inoculations to Africa faster.

It is currently reviewing applications for emergency licences for two vaccines made by Denmark's Bavarian Nordic and Japan's KM Biologics. Tedros said these were expected to be granted in the next two weeks.

Rosamund Lewis, the WHO technical lead for mpox, said she hoped the vaccines and other interventions by health partners would help cases come down again in the near future.