ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC) – Health authorities say at least two women have contracted the mosquito borne Zika virus as the number of cases of people infected with the virus jumped to 28.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr David Johnson, said there were no reported complications with the pregnant women and that to date “we have identified a total of 28 confirmed case of the Zika virus”.

But he said that although the cases are confirmed, it doesn’t mean those affected are sick at this time.

“We take samples and those samples are sent to Trinidad, to the Caribbean Public Health Agency for confirmation. The turnaround time is usually around five days to a week but most times by the time we get the result, the persons are in fact asymptomatic.

“So in fact, all of the persons who I referred to, are asymptomatic at this time, in other words, they are not presenting any signs or symptoms of the Zika virus,” he said, noting that the two cases involving the pregnant women are of the greatest concern to health officials.

“We have a complete team of medical personnel, specialists, who are monitoring these individuals to ensure that they provide, I should add, psychosocial support to the individuals and bring all of the necessary investigation and monitoring by our experts,” he said, adding that no complications have been identified in the pregnant women.

“It’s not a one to one ratio that if you have Zika virus and you are pregnant that your baby will born with any sort of malformation,” he remarked.

Dominica confirmed its first case of the disease on March 15.