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Newly approved Zika funding isn't likely to reach states and localities for several more months because of the federal goverment's budgeting process, health officials said Monday. After months of partisan feuding, Congress last week approved a budget bill that includes $1.1 billion to fight the Zika crisis. That's just over half the total emergency money that President Obama requested in February. Although local and state health officials have been eagerly awaiting assistance, funds aren't likely to be flowing right away. (Sun, 10/3)

The nation’s top health officials on Monday laid out their plans for spending $1.1 billion in newly appropriated federal funds to combat the threat posed by the Zika virus. At the same time, they vented frustration at Congress for taking so long to make the money available as the virus spread to more than 25,000 people in U.S. states and territories, including 3,600 on the mainland. (Healy, 10/3)

Top Obama administration health officials said Monday that Congress’s months-long delay in providing funds hurt their response to the Zika virus. They added that their work can now accelerate after Congress finally approved $1.1 billion in funding to fight the virus last week. (Sullivan, 10/3)

The $1.1 billion allocated by Congress last week to fight Zika will mean more money for states and localities to control and monitor for the mosquito-borne virus and for researchers to develop vaccines and diagnostic tests. (Cohn, 10/3)

The Florida Department of Health on Monday announced six new Zika infections that occurred in Miami Beach, where mosquitoes are transmitting the virus in a zone that covers two-thirds of the city. Three other local cases were identified as Miami-Dade residents, but the health department is investigating where the exposure occurred. And there were three more cases in which individuals traveled to both Miami-Dade and countries where the transmission of Zika is widespread. The state couldn’t determine where their exposure had occurred. (Flechas, 10/3)