Travel alerts issued over Zika in Florida

UK newspapers warning pregnant women to make only 'essential' trips to Fla.

Millions of people from across the pond in the United Kingdom woke up to bold headlines like, "Pregnant women told to delay travel to Florida over Zika virus fears" or "Florida Zika cases prompt UK advice for pregnant travelers", warning pregnant women about Zika in Florida.

That warning grows as Florida gained 10 more locally contracted cases over the weekend, bringing the total to 14.

Warnings London's Gary Deals and his family got via text message from his brother over the weekend. They are in Orlando on vacation for a few weeks.

"The warning said, it gave us a Facebook page, it said if you are 6 months pregnant and that the tourist operators are allowing you to cancel if you don't want to come over if you are pregnant and stuff like that."

He's not too worried about, and neither his fiancee Kim Flight, but she tells News 6 she understands the panic.

"Me personally it won't affect me because I'm not trying to conceive and stuff like that," she said. "But it is quite scary for pregnant mothers or people that try to conceive."

According to 2014 numbers from Visit Orlando, tourists from the United Kingdom make up 1.2 percent of the total 62 million visitors. That's about 334,000 visitors from the UK.

Visit Orlando officials wouldn't talk to News 6 on-camera about the effect the internal advisories could have on tourism, but spokesperson Beth Cocchiarella did send this statement:

"As the #1 travel destination in the US, safety is the top priority for our region.  Orlando has a world-class infrastructure and network in place designed to keep our community and visitors secure, healthy and happy.  Our county has a highly effective mosquito prevention and monitoring program in place throughout the destination, and confirm that no cases of Zika have been contracted through mosquitoes in our area. We communicate regularly with numerous state and local public health organizations, such as the Department of Health, to monitor new developments."


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