Michael Moline
State health officials have confirmed a new non-travel-related case of Zika in Palm Beach County, bringing the total number of locally transmitted cases in the state to 43.
The new case was not related to a locally acquired case already identified in Palm Beach County, Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday during a conference call.
“We’ll be going door to door to do outreach in the Palm Beach area and doing strategic testing to identify if any other people might have contracted the Zika virus,” Scott said. “We’ve already started aggressive mosquito abatement reduction activities — and we do that every place where we find a non-travel case.”
Scott chastised the White House and Congress for failing to do more about the outbreak. Last week he urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send 5,000 Zika antibody tests but said fewer than 1,200 have arrived.
“Congress and the White House have not been good partners,” Scott said.
Previously, Florida Department of Health officials had identified non-travel-related Zika infections in Broward, Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties.
“We will be able to deal with Zika if all of us participate,” he said. “All of us have to get rid of standing water in our homes, at our businesses, at government offices — every place we are. We need to use bug repellent. Our job here is to protect all the pregnant women in our state and all of their developing babies. That means all of us have to put in effort to make sure that none of us contract Zika.”
According to Scott, the state has allocated $26.2 million for Zika testing, and has tested 4,000 people statewide. The Department of Agriculture has tested more than 30,000 mosquitoes caught in traps and hasn’t found any with Zika, he said.
University of Florida researchers have warned Florida could see as many as 400 non-travel-related Zika infections by the end of summer.
