CDC warns pregnant women to avoid South Beach

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned pregnant women to avoid South Beach, Florida, on Friday after the region of Miami Beach was identified as a Zika infection zone. Zika virus has apparently spread beyond the Wynwood neighborhood on the mainland where it was originally identified; the CDC has warned pregnant women to avoid the neighborhood, and to consider postponing all nonessential travel to the entirety of Miami-Dade County.

So far, Zika virus has been transmitted to five people in Miami Beach, bringing the total cases in Florida that are unrelated to travel up to 36. Until three weeks ago, all U.S. cases of the Zika virus, which is linked to devastating birth defects, were believed to have been contracted abroad.

The Miami area boasted a record-breaking 15.5 million visitors in 2015; the city has a metro population of about 5.5 million. "We can expect to see Zika popping up here and there, but it's not an epidemic," Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine told The New York Times on Thursday.

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