Zika virus is spreading in South Florida, state health officials confirmed on Tuesday, with reports of a new locally transmitted case in Miami-Dade County — this one outside of the Miami neighborhood where the nation’s first cluster of local infections emerged in July.
Florida health officials said a one-square-mile neighborhood north of downtown — around Wynwood — remains the only area in the state with active, ongoing Zika transmission by mosquitoes. But the new local infection indicates that mosquitoes are spreading the disease beyond this isolated district.
“We are investigating that carefully,” said Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health said late Tuesday, “and if we do identify another area of local transmission, we will put out an advisory.”
The new case raises the number of locally transmitted Zika infections in Florida to 15 people, including 13 in Miami-Dade and two in Broward. Health officials also reported three new travel-related Zika infections in Miami-Dade on Tuesday, raising the statewide total to 336 people who acquired the disease abroad.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
