Florida Gov. Rick Scott will allocate $26 million in state funds to fight Zika, a day after state officials began scrambling to figure out if a discovery of the virus in the state is the nation’s first case of mosquito transmission in the continental U.S.
The Republican governor criticized the federal government for not approving funding for Zika before June 1, the start of meteorological summer.
“It is clear that we can no longer afford to wait on the federal government,” Scott said Wednesday. “That is why I am authorizing $26.2 million from our state’s general revenue fund to be allocated solely for Zika preparedness, prevention and response in Florida.”
The announcement comes after the state’s health department announced a new non-travel related Zika case. Florida has more than 200 Zika cases, but all of the patients picked up the virus from another country.
So far the virus is not spreading via mosquito bites in the U.S., the primary mode of transmission. It is not yet known if the Florida case in Miami-Dade county is the first mosquito transmission.
Congress adjourned last week without approving a $1.1 billion funding package for Zika. The package passed the House but stalled in the Senate due to Democratic objections. Democrats complained the package included riders such as stripping funding to Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico and lifting a ban on Confederate flags being flown at federal cemeteries.
