Gov. Rick Scott said Friday that five new locally-transmitted Zika cases are connected to the Miami Beach area. The total number of local transmissions now stands at 36.
“This means that we believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach," Gov. Scott said at an afternoon news conference. (Watch the full news conference below)
The Florida Department of Health identified the area as between 8th and 28th streets in Miami Beach.
Three of the patients are men and two are women.
Two are Miami-Dade residents; one is from New York, one from Texas and the other from Taiwan.
He said aggressive spraying has already begun in Miami Beach.
The governor says he’s asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an additional 5,000 Zika antibody test kits and an additional 10,000 Zika prevention kits.
In a statement Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said pregnant women should avoid travel to the South Beach area.
The CDC said pregnant women also should continue to avoid travel to Miami's Wynwood arts district.
That neighborhood was the first site on the U.S. mainland where health officials determined mosquitoes were transmitting Zika.
The CDC also said pregnant women and their partners may want to consider postponing nonessential travel to all of Miami-Dade County if they're concerned about potential exposure to the virus.
In the agency's statement, CDC Director Tom Frieden said it's "difficult to predict how long active transmission will continue."
The Florida Department of Health reported that there are 14 new travel-related cases today with six in Miami-Dade, one in Broward, one in Palm Beach, one in Seminole and five involving pregnant women.
Clearer map released by @FLGovScott on new zone in Miami Beach @WPTV @Fox29WFLX pic.twitter.com/JVP14c5q4t
— Andrew Ruiz WPTV (@AndrewNRuiz) August 19, 2016
Pregnant women & sexual partners concerned about #Zika may consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrFriedenCDC) August 19, 2016
