HARTFORD – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) applauded an announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday that the Connecticut Department of Public Health will receive an additional $400,000 of federal funding to combat the Zika virus. 

“This funding will continue to help Connecticut residents stay informed and protected from the Zika virus,” said Murphy. “I’m glad we’re taking another step to confront this health crisis, but Congress bears much of the blame for Zika’s devastation because we turned down every chance we had to stop it in its tracks. Congress needs to immediately pass a clean, bipartisan emergency funding bill to give doctors and scientists the resources they need to stop Zika.”

After public health officials in Florida announced last week that various cases of Zika were acquired in the continental United States, Murphy called on Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics with the Zika emergency and immediately pass the bipartisan $1.1 billion compromise bill that the Senate overwhelmingly approved earlier this summer. As a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Murphy has supported numerous initiatives to combat the outbreak of Zika in Connecticut and across the United States, and has continuously called for emergency funding to address the outbreak. 

The Connecticut Department of Public Health has confirmed that forty-five Connecticut residents have tested positive for travel-related cases of Zika, including 3 pregnant women.