“Maybe today or tomorrow,” Pelosi told reporters in a hallway on Thursday. She did not give an amount, but said, “I think they are going to try to do it a piece at a time, hoping that something else will happen,” an apparent reference to the administration’s request that the Republican-led Congress approve a funding bill to combat the virus.
House Democrats at a news conference urged the Republicans to reconvene Congress to address the virus. Florida is grappling with at least 21 cases of locally transmitted Zika, and the Obama administration has already reprogrammed nearly $600 million US to fight the virus.
Kids returning to school in a Miami neighbourhood linked to Zika infections will be allowed to wear pants and long-sleeved shirts that don’t match their school uniforms, but still can’t bring mosquito repellent to campus. (Lynne Sladky/Associated Press)
Money will have to be shifted from biomedical research to fight Zika, DeLauro said. “If they don’t, vaccine development will be stopped dead in its tracks,” she said.
Meanwhile, kids returning to school in a Miami neighborhood linked to Zika infections will be allowed to wear pants and long-sleeved shirts that don’t match their school uniforms, but still can’t bring mosquito repellent to campus.
The Miami Herald reports that at a school board meeting Wednesday, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said “aggressive application” of repellent should be done at home, not at school where some students may be allergic to the spray.
Some 4,000 students attend six schools in the Wynwood arts district where health officials say 22 people have contracted Zika, a mosquito-borne virus. Classes resume Aug. 22.
The Herald reports state health workers will be stationed at each school to check for mosquito breeding sites and provide parents with repellent.