Miami-Dade County releases Zika-positive trap locations

Mayor says state health officials asked county to withhold locations

MIAMI(WPLG) Miami-Dade County officials have released the locations of mosquito traps that captured Zika-positive insects in Miami Beach.

A news release Wednesday from the office of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez revealed a chart with the five locations. They are 932 Leonx Ave., 1619 Meridian Ave., 2000 Convention Center Drive, 2378 Prairie Ave. and 1236 Drexel Ave.

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The chart shows the exact location of the traps, the date the positive pools of mosquitoes were trapped, the number of pools of mosquitoes sent for testing and the dates that the negative pools of mosquitoes were collected.

File: Miami Beach mosquito trap locations

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Surgeon General Celeste Philip encouraged county officials to release trap locations, and the county made the decision Tuesday evening.

File: Mayor Carlos Gimenez's letter to surgeon general

Earlier that day, Gimenez sent a letter to the Florida Department of Health saying he would release the locations unless state health officials prohibited the action in writing by Wednesday afternoon.

Both the state and county had previously refused to disclose the locations, arguing the records were exempt from public records law because they were part of an epidemiological investigation.

"As I have stated many times before, Miami-Dade County remains committed to the health and safety of our residents and visitors, and to absolute transparency in our communications with the community we serve," Gimenez said in a statement. "The Department of Health instructed the county, on multiple occasions, to withhold information related to the exact location of the Zika-positive mosquito traps."

Gimenez said that, going forward, the county will disclose the locations of any traps with mosquitoes that test positive for the Zika virus.

"It is also important to note that while we did have five traps that tested positive for Zika on dates ranging from Aug. 22 to Sept. 9, multiple subsequent tests have since been conducted, and all of those tests came back negative," Gimenez said. 


About the Authors:

Peter Burke returned for a second stint of duty at Local 10 News in February 2014.