The U.S. government has shifted $34 million US in funding to the National Institutes of Health and $47 million US to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to work on Zika vaccines.
The announcement was made in a letter from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell addressed to Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Burwell said the funding was intended to keep Zika vaccine research going despite the lack of funding from U.S. lawmakers, who left for summer recess before allocating any funding to Zika research and preparedness.
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.