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Rep. Jolly Pushing For Location Of Pinellas Zika Transmission

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Lottie Watts
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

  With the first locally-transmitted case of Zika in Tampa Bay the question on everyone’s minds is where?

Rep.  David Jolly, who represents Pinellas County, is pushing for an answer.

It took 11 days for officials to say where in Miami the first locally-transmitted cases of Zika were detected.  And that was only after the virus had spread.

Jolly doesn't want that to happen here.

“The stakes are too high to wait to see if this spreads before identifying a specific location,” Jolly said.  

He says the state can still protect the privacy of the infected individual by releasing an approximate location.

“Listen if you're an expectant mother or you're a family hoping to have a child, I think you would consider the information a little differently,” Jolly said. “Let's empower people with the information and let them make decisions.”

Florida Surgeon General Celeste Phillips says revealing where the person lives before finishing the investigation may not provide an accurate location of where the transmission happened. 

Julio Ochoa is editor of Health News Florida.