Off the wire
• U.S. stocks rally ahead of Fed meeting  • Quotable quotes from high-level UN meeting on refugees, migrants  • Some top rise to lift Nairobi bourse key index amid low trading  • 1st LD Writethru: At least 17 killed in DR Congo protests  • 1st LD-Writethru: China publishes selected works of Hu Jintao  • Urgent: At least 17 killed in DR Congo protests  • Lebanon proposes project for return of displaced Syrians  • Chinese police take back fugitive from France  • Poland eyes increasing poultry exports to China  • 1st LD: China to provide 100 million U.S. dollars in additional aid for problems of refugee movement  
You are here: 　 Home

First U.S. area with Zika declared virus free: Florida governor

Xinhua, September 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

The first U.S. area with locally transmitted Zika, the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami, is now free of the mosquito-borne virus, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced Monday.

Scott made the announcement following 45 days with no evidence of active Zika transmission in the entire Wynwood zone, which was originally about one square mile (2.6 square kilometers).

Florida will host "Dine Out Wynwood" on Sept. 30 to support businesses there and Scott said he will be in Wynwood to participate in the event.

"Now that the Wynwood zone has been lifted, we must all work together to help this incredible Florida community fully recover," he said in a statement. "I encourage everyone to travel to Wynwood and join me in visiting the many great local restaurants and businesses."

However, the fight against Zika is not over in Florida, as the virus is still spreading in another location in Miami, known as Miami Beach.

On Friday, the Florida Department of Health expanded the Miami Beach Zika zone from an area of about 1.5 square miles to 4.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers to 11.7 square kilometers).

So far, Florida is the only U.S. state that has reported local Zika transmission by mosquitoes. The total number of local Zika cases in the state has reached 93. Endit