With pitchers and catchers reporting to Florida later this week, Major League Baseball has been in talks with federal health officials to monitor developments in the Zika outbreak.
The Sunshine State — where 15 teams hold spring training, including the Yankees and Mets — has declared a public health state of emergency due to the mosquito-spread virus.
“We have communicated CDC recommendations to our clubs and MLB employees and have provided factual information, including symptom identification and best practices on prevention,” an MLB spokesman to WTOP radio in Washington, DC.
All of the Florida cases are travel-related, with victims having contracted the virus outside the US before returning home.
The Aedes Aegypti mosquito, prime carrier of the virus, is not native to most of the United States. But it has been previously linked to Florida and Gulf State neighbors.
Sunshine State health officials are urging Floridians to be careful around — and to get rid of — areas of standing water.
Meanwhile, Russia reported its first case of Zika on Monday. The patient was identified as a Russian citizen who recently returned home from vacation in the Dominican Republic.
Closer to home, health officials in Erie County said they’ve diagnosed the first local case of of that virus. The victim will be OK after contracting the virus while visiting El Salvador, according to Eric County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein.
“We’re fortunate in Western New York that we don’t have the strain of mosquitoes that can transmit Zika virus,” Burstein told WIVB.