ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday announced a non-travel-related case of Zika in the Tampa Bay region.
It’s the first in the state outside the Miami area, but Scott said there wasn’t enough evidence to date to declare a new zone of local transmission.
If Department of Health officials conclude mosquitoes have transmitted the disease to people in the Tampa Bay area of Pinellas County, it would the third such area in the continental U.S. following clusters of cases traced to downtown Miami’s Wynwood arts district and a touristy area of Miami Beach.
“While this investigation is ongoing, DOH still believes that ongoing active transmissions are only occurring in the two previously identified areas in Wynwood and Miami Beach,” Scott said in a statement.
Scott spoke during a Zika roundtable in the Pinellas County city of Clearwater, near Tampa. He also said four new cases were connected to mosquitoes in Miami’s Wynwood arts district. A fifth new case was diagnosed in a Pinellas County resident who hasn’t traveled internationally.