Despite several efforts of the government to stop the spread of the West Nile Virus, it is still spreading. Thus in an effort to get the virus under control, the city of Longview has started boosting spraying efforts around the city.

Mentioning about its spraying plans, the government of the city said that they have planned citywide spraying of pesticide, which they believe will help battling against the still-spreading outbreak of WNV.

The officials have cleared that the start of the street-by-street fogging will be done from Monday morning and will continue till Thursday by covering the entire city.

Concerns rose higher when in its Friday's issued report, the state health department confirmed seven deaths from West Nile Virus in Texas since Wednesday following which Longview suggested its stepped-up spraying program on Friday to tackle the situation.

Fortunately, no deaths have been reported from Northeast Texas but yes, authorities have started hearing affected cases from Gregg, Cherokee, Rusk and Smith counties.

Gregg County has lost one life to the disease last month whereas five more cases of the neuroinvasive form of the illness have been reported.

"We're adding citywide spraying Monday", said city spokesman Mr. Shawn Hara. "We were doing targeted spraying, but now we're going to add it throughout".