Of the $29.7 million in funding used to combat the virus, $22 million has been spent on pest-control staff and insecticide — with insecticide amassing $5 million alone. The county is now looking to hire a full-time entomologist to help lead the charge against the mosquito-borne virus, which has caused the largest dip in tourism spending in the county since the Great Recession in 2008, according to the Herald.
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“We’ve kicked up our efforts a lot,” said Carlos Gimenez, the Republican Mayor of Miami-Dade County, according to the report. “We’re going to do everything in our power not to have a Zika zone. But a lot of that is out of our control.”
In 2016, Florida experienced 285 cases of locally acquired Zika infections, according to the state health department.
More articles on the Zika virus:
Puerto Rico may be underreporting Zika-related birth defects, experts say
CDC researchers call for increased surveillance of Zika-related epilepsy
Florida releases thousands of bacteria-infected mosquitoes to fight Zika
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