Pacific / New Caledonia

First local New Caledonia Zika case

14:10 pm on 4 March 2016

Mosquito, Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

Health authorities in New Caledonia have reported the first case of a Zika infection contracted locally.

They say the individual concerned lives in the Noumea area, prompting renewed calls to fight the spread of the virus.

A local infection is defined as contracting the disease without travelling to a Zika zone in the preceding 15 days.

In the previous Zika outbreak in 2014, the territory registered 1,300 confirmed cases