Cuba says two people apparently contracted Zika inside country

Cuba says it has diagnosed the Zika virus in two people who appear to have contracted it inside the country, which has been largely successful in controlling the disease.

The Health Ministry said the cases were discovered Monday in the eastern city of Holguin and had been confirmed as Zika by laboratory tests. The ministry says neither patient had traveled outside the country.

Cuba has been quarantining travelers who arrive with Zika and spraying heavily for mosquitoes, strategies that kept the number of cases of the disease contracted inside Cuba to one before the announcement late Wednesday.

The government said the two patients were recovering well and their neighborhood was being subjected to intense investigation and spraying for mosquitoes.