U.S. officials provide stopgap Zika funds, Congress urged to act

Federal health officials, scrambling to fund efforts to combat the spread of the Zika virus in the United States, said on Tuesday they have provided more stopgap money to various locales while calls grew for Congress to cut short its recess and act. Concern is mounting about the threat posed by the mosquito-borne virus after authorities in Florida last week reported the first signs of local transmission of Zika in the continental United States. The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday said it was investigating one more case of locally transmitted infection, bringing to 15 the number of people infected by the bite of local mosquito in the same one square mile (2.6 square km) area of Miami-Dade County.