New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett has issued a travel warning to residents, urging them to avoid travel to Zika-affected countries after officials identified 56 pregnant women in the city who had contracted the virus out of about 500 total reported cases among New Yorkers.
State Sen. Adriano Espaillat encouraged pregnant women and those intending on becoming pregnant in the near-future to suspend travel to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico among other Zika-ridden areas.
"We’re doing this out of the concern for [pregnant women’s] health, but most important, for the health of their unborn child. It’s critical that they take that responsibility," Espaillat told DNA Info.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that federal funds to combat Zika in the U.S. would run out within the next month, the New York Times reported.
Of the $222 million the CDC was allocated to fight the virus this year, the agency had spent $194 as of Friday. Dr. Tom Frieden, who heads the CDC, predicted the rest would be dried up by the end of September.
Frieden’s announcement came as Florida officials recorded three more locally transmitted Zika cases in the state Tuesday, bringing the total to 46. The CDC has sent $35 million to Florida, but the majority of those funds have already been spent. Frieden said if transmission in the U.S. starts occurring more regularly, the CDC would not have the resources to send emergency funds.
"The cupboard is bare, there’s no way to provide that," he told reporters.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the allergy and infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, warned last week that states across the Gulf Coast are particularly vulnerable to the virus.
Congress has failed to act on the Obama administration’s emergency request for $1.9 billion to combat Zika’s spread. Lawmakers are not scheduled to reconvene from recess until next week.
The U.S. is currently in peak mosquito season, which typically lasts until the end of October, Frieden said. The CDC advised pregnant women earlier this month to avoid travel to Miami-Dade County, which includes popular tourist destination South Beach.