The Zika virus is spreading beyond the small area of the Miami neighborhood of Wynwood, now moving to a part of Miami Beach, Florida officials confirmed Friday.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott told reporters that five Zika cases were the result of local transmission, likely through mosquito bites, along a one-and-a-half-mile part of Miami Beach. Previously, officials had said the virus was spreading locally only in a one-mile-radius in Wynwood.

Florida officials have found 36 cases of local transmission of Zika in the state.

Local officials learned of the spread to Miami beach on Thursday morning, but the mayor of Miami Beach refused to say late Thursday that there was an outbreak in the tourist hot spot, according to the Miami Herald.

Florida's Department of Health did not say that the virus had spread to Miami Beach when it put out its daily Zika report on Thursday and added that it believed the virus was only spreading in Wynwood.

Scott responded to several reporters' queries that health officials have been muzzled by the governor's office from speaking to reporters about the Zika virus and that he may have been downplaying the virus due to tourism concerns.

"We want to make sure every citizen in the state knows what is going," Scott said. "We are putting [out] information on exactly what is going on."

It is not clear whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will revise its travel advisory for Miami. The agency has advised pregnant women to not travel to the Wynwood area.

The virus causes a mild illness in most people, but is also has been found to cause the birth defect microcephaly.