5 South Beach sites with Zika-infected mosquitoes identified

MIAMI (AP) - The first Zika-infected mosquitoes to be trapped on the U.S. mainland were caught in residential South Beach neighborhoods, Miami-Dade County officials announced Wednesday.

The disclosure of four locations outside the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, which was previously identified as a breeding site for Zika-carrying mosquitoes, has been the subject of a recent dispute between state and local officials. The Miami Herald sued the county Sept. 16 after its public records request for the trap information was denied.

In a statement, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Florida's Department of Health instructed the county on multiple occasions to withhold the addresses because of privacy concerns during their investigation into the Zika outbreak in Miami Beach.

The information was released Wednesday with permission from Florida's surgeon general, Dr. Celeste Philip, Gimenez said.

"This will be our protocol going forward: We will disclose the locations of any such traps that test positive for Zika to both the property owner and to anyone else who inquires," he said.

Philip emailed Gimenez on Tuesday afternoon to say the disclosure of all the trap locations was encouraged, according to an email forwarded by health department spokeswoman Mara Gambineri.

"As you know, this decision is one that is solely the county's to make," Philip wrote. "We encourage you to disclose the locations of these traps immediately so that your residents may remain fully informed and we are happy to serve as a resource to you in this process moving forward."

Gov. Rick Scott's office has made similar statements. Miami Beach is currently the state's only active Zika transmission zone, but additional infections are being investigated elsewhere in Miami-Dade County, according to the health department.

Gimenez's office maintains the county withheld the South Beach trap locations to follow the state's instructions.

Philip's email "is not consistent with what Miami-Dade County officials, including Mayor Gimenez, have been told throughout this process," said the mayor's spokesman, Michael Hernandez, who added the health department's administrator in the county said at a news conference the locations could not be released due to privacy concerns during an active investigation.

Four trap sites were located near short, pastel-colored apartment buildings with the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival architecture that is symbolic of South Beach, according to addresses released in a statement from Gimenez's office.

Unlike the modern, luxury high-rises now common along the waterfront in South Beach, hedges, trees and other vegetation crowd the sidewalks and entrances around those buildings.

The fifth site at the botanical garden was previously released. All the traps were located within an initially small outbreak zone that now extends through much of Miami Beach.