Despite positive news earlier this week about the "Zika Zone" shrinking in the Wynwood area, officials in the county’s other transmission area are still holding their breath that the worst has already taken place.
Miami Beach city officials took part in a roundtable discussion with Governor Rick Scott and others Friday morning, discussing the strategy at both the state and local level to fight the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.
In recent days, Miami Beach Mayor Phillip Levine had been critical of the communication between the city and the state, while Scott has maintained that everything is going smoothly as the fight continues.
Also Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced it wants all U.S. blood banks to start screening for Zika virus, a major expansion intended to protect the nation's blood supply from the mosquito-borne disease.
The new advisory means all U.S. states and territories will need to begin testing blood donations for Zika. Previously, the requirement was limited to areas with active Zika transmission, such as Puerto Rico and two Florida counties.
Blood banks already test donations for HIV, hepatitis, West Nile virus and other blood-borne viruses.
Last month, the FDA told blood centers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale to immediately stop collecting donations until they could begin screening each unit of blood for Zika. The order followed now-confirmed reports of local Zika transmission - the first in the continental U.S.
Thursday, Scott announced that he would visit Washington D.C. on September 6th in an effort to push for more funding from Congress, which is currently at odds with the Obama administration over passing a bill that would provide money to the state.
The announcement last week of five non-travel cases found in the city has officials concerned about the tourism industry that funds Miami Beach. A hotel manager told NBC 6 Friday that almost two dozen cancellations along had taken place within a 24 hour period, with all of them citing the disease as the reason.
