The announcement comes days after Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease official during the pandemic, was hospitalized with West Nile virus.
Fauci said he believes he contracted West Nile in the backyard of his Washington DC home, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Last week, several areas of Massachusetts were placed under “voluntary lockdown” after one elderly man contracted the dangerous and often-fatal Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus, and was hospitalized.
Citing the increased health threat posed by mosquitoes, the New York health department began to spray pesticides in the Bronx and Staten Island last week.
The next scheduled mass fumigation events are scheduled to take place in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Yahoo reports that Manhattan areas will be sprayed on Monday and neighborhoods in Brooklyn can expected to be sprayed on Wednesday.
The health department said in an advisory last week that, should weather allow, trucks would spray between the hours of 8:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. in both boroughs.
The health department is spraying “very low concentrations” of adulticide, a type of insecticide used to kill adult mosquitoes.
The city is also deploying Anvil 10+10, Duet, and MERUS3, which are all available for purchase online.
