Orange County receives grant to fight Zika virus

From The Orlando Sentinel
April 10, 2018

With mosquito season just around the corner, Orange County is getting money from the state to help combat the Zika virus.

Orange is one of just 10 counties statewide to receive the $325,000 grant from the state Department of Health, Mosquito Control Division Manager Kelly Deutsch said.

The funds will be used to purchase equipment such as handheld sprayers, backpack sprayers, truck-mounted sprayers, traps, and anti-mosquito materials including pellets, briquettes and liquids.

The amount was less than similar grants awarded by the state in 2016 and 2017, when the Zika threat was at its highest.

The county received $61,000 from the DOH in 2016, when 1,122 travel-related cases and 298 locally-transmitted cases were reported, and $166,000 in 2017 when there were 225 travel-related cases and two locally-transmitted cases, one in Manatee County and the other in Miami-Dade County.

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