Florida sends another $5 million to fight Zika in Miami-Dade

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Rick Scott has announced that the Florida Department of Health is allocating another $5 million in funding to Miami-Dade County for Zika preparedness and mosquito control.

Earlier Monday, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine asked for more federal resources to combat Zika’s spread in South Florida, where the first cases of the virus transmitted by mosquito bites on the U.S. mainland have been found in the neighborhoods of South Beach and Wynwood.

The mayor said “we need the federal government to step up.”

President Barack Obama requested an emergency $1.9 billion in February for mosquito control and vaccine development. But lawmakers left Washington for their summer recess without approving the money after Republicans tied the funding to a dispute over abortion.