While the Zika virus continues to course across Florida – with more than 800 cases reported, including 77 transmitted locally – cases from Wynwood have dried up.
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday that the Department of Health was expanding the area of local transmission on Miami Beach from 8th Street to 63rd Street.
Entrepreneurs and politicians have circled September 19 recently as the date when they hoped the federal government would lift the advisory, instated just days after Scott announced in July that at least two people had contracted Zika from mosquitoes carrying the virus in the neighborhood. So far, the Florida Department of Health has publicly identified 93 locally contracted cases of Zika, including five new ones on Friday connected to Miami Beach, where the 45-day countdown has yet to begin.
But despite months of public outreach and aggressive mosquito control measures, including the removal of cylinder-shaped tropical plants that trap water where insects can breed, Florida health officials have continued to find Zika-carrying mosquitoes in Miami Beach.
“This outbreak would have kept going without the aerial spraying”, Petersen said.
Once the center of nationwide concern over the possible spread of Zika, the Wynwood section of Miami-Dade County is being declared safe by state and local officials.
“Wynwood has emerged from this challenge stronger than ever”, he said. Additionally, I am renewing my call to the Obama Administration to provide 10,000 Zika Prevention Kits to protect pregnant women and a detailed plan on how they would like us to work with FEMA now that Zika is mosquito-borne in our state.
“The Zika virus does not discriminate against county, state or country borders, and we must do everything in our power to ensure our communities are aware of Zika and protected against its negative impacts that can forever change the lives of Californians”, Hernandez said.
Indeed, the fight against Zika is not over in Florida, as the virus is still spreading in another location in Miami, known as Miami Beach. He will be joined by Tomas Regalado, the City of Miami Mayor; Carlos Gimenez, the County Mayor; and the Wynwood Business Improvement District.
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The study noted that the risk of the spread of Zika could actually be much greater than its results indicated because other species of the Aedes mosquito could be effective vectors for the virus. The total area where DOH believes active transmission of the Zika virus is occurring is around 4.5 square miles (see map below).
