The news cycle has backed off the Zika virus, for now at least, but that doesn’t mean it is not still around and that its effects are still being felt. Police officers in Miami who contracted Zika sought workers’ compensation benefits because they claimed they caught the virus while out on patrol in the “hot zones” for Zika over the summer. The City of Miami Beach has so far declined them workers’ comp, saying they need to prove that the bite took place while the police were on duty and they need to find the source, the actual mosquito that bit them.

Jimmy Morales, the Miami Beach City Manager, sent a letter to officers seeking workers’ comp. In it, he explained that the city already provides subsidized health coverage for its employees, and police officers have the FOP Trust Health program which is subsidized between 76 and 80 percent. He said that officers still have the right to file a workers’ compensation claim but to qualify the employee has the burden of proof, and needs to show that the disease was contracted on duty and identify the infected mosquito that bit them. The city offered employees free insect repellant and testing, and offered pregnant employees the chance to be reassigned to an area outside the Zika zone.

The officers work in an identified Zika zone but they live in an area where the virus has not been identified as active. They are calling on the city to change their policy. The FOP president in Miami Beach, Bobby Jenkins said that it send a poor message to the city employees and the community at large.

Read more about the situation and read the letter here.