MIAMI (WSVN) - Florida Gov. Rick Scott has given the all clear for Miami’s Little River neighborhood, one of two remaining Zika zones in Miami-Dade County.
Scott gave an update on the fight against Zika at St. Mary’s Cathedral School in Miami, Friday morning. “Today is a good news day,” he said. “After 45 days of no local transmission of Zika in the Little River area, we can say the Little River area no longer has active transmission of Zika, which is a very good thing.”
For now, 7-year-old Nixon Gervil doesn’t have to worry about carrying Off! everywhere he goes. “They told me to bring a spray and a thing, but I don’t know what it’s called yet,” he said.
The area between Northwest 63rd and 79th streets and Northwest 10th and North Miami avenues is the second Zika zone to get the all clear in recent weeks. The northern half of Miami Beach is also in the clear.
Scott was joined at the Cathedral of St. Mary Catholic School by a group of local leaders.
“We got together and we said by working together, we can solve this, said William Talbert, President and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We were optimistic then and we are optimistic today.”
This all comes as one of Miami’s biggest weekend’s gets underway. Art Basel has brought record numbers back to Wynwood.
However, Scott said the federal government has not been a good enough partner. “We worked hard to get the $1.1 billion for the funding,” he said. “It’s been two months and we’ve only seen about $7 million of that so far.”
The only remaining Zika zone is on a 1.5 square-mile area of Miami Beach between Fifth and 23rd Streets.
Scott said there is lots of work still left to be done. “We don’t have a vaccine yet,” he said. “Next summer we are going to have more mosquitoes again, so we are going to have to keep working at this.”
According to the Florida Department of Health, about 1,200 cases of Zika have been reported in Florida to date, but only about 250 of those were contracted in the state.
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