The city is sending a million condoms to Puerto Rico to help the island battle the Zika virus.
The Health Department’s official “NYC Condoms” will be donated through the local Puerto Rico Department of Health, officials plan to announce Monday.
Puerto Rico, which has recorded one death from the virus, has already been hit with 474 locally transmitted cases, more than anywhere else in the United States, and the outbreak is expected to get worse.
The virus is largely spread by mosquitoes and can also be passed on through sex.
PUERTO RICO REPORTS FIRST U.S. ZIKA-RELATED DEATH AMID OUTBREAK
Zika is linked to a severe birth defect called microcephaly, where babies are born with unusually small heads.
“As the Zika virus epidemic spreads and we continue to learn more about the risk of sexual transmission and birth defects, we wanted to use our resources to help our longstanding partners in Puerto Rico,” Health Commissioner Mary Bassett wrote to her Puerto Rican counterpart, Ana Ríus Armendáriz.
In New York City, there have been 59 cases of Zika identified, but none were transmitted locally. Officials have been gearing up to make sure the disease doesn’t begin to spread here.
The city gave out more than 37 million free NYC Condoms last year, and has handed out 340 million since the distribution program began in 2007.
“For too long American citizens in Puerto Rico have received second-class treatment,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
“The Zika virus poses a serious threat across the globe and the high infection rates in Puerto Rico are a somber reminder that Congress must grant Puerto Rico as much health care funding as it provides to all other U.S. Citizens.”
It’s not the first time the city’s branded rubbers have made their way to the Caribbean — the Daily News reported in 2014 that the condoms were being smuggled and sold for cash in the Dominican Republic.