The US President Barack Obama called on the Republican lawmakers to allocate funds for fight against the Zika virus, reports the Voice of America. In his weekly address to the nation Obama said that more than six months ago he had asked the Congress to approve the funding for urgent actions that are necessary for combating the Zika virus, but the lawmakers refused to take that step.

According to him, as a result, amounts spent for Zika are used from other federal programs, for example, allotted to fight the Ebola virus, cancer, or other diseases. Obama noted, it is not the best solution and stressed that the Congress has gone on a seven-week vacation, doing nothing to protect Americans from Zika virus. Obama urged the Republicans to consider the Zika as a real threat.

As of mid-August, there was registered in the US more than 2.5 thousand cases of infection with the Zika virus. In the vast majority of cases, the infection has been caught during visits to the South and Central American countries.