Schools nationwide braced themselves to prevent outbreaks of A(H1N1) on campus as the new school year began yesterday.
Administrators at Taitung’s Malan Primary School stopped students and parents at school entrances to take their temperature before allowing them onto campus.
Principal Lin Fang-jung (林芳蓉) said the school had face masks and bleach in every classroom to help prevent transmission of the virus.
PHOTO: CNA
There were similar scenes at Chiayi City’s Chiaoping Elementary School, where administrators said any student or faculty member with a temperature of more than 37ºC would have to wear a face mask while on campus, and anyone with a temperature of 37.5ºC would be quarantined.
A number of education officials, including Chiayi City’s Department of Education Director-General Yu Kun-lung (余坤龍), Changhua County Government Education Department Director-General Chang Chi-yu (張基郁) and Kaohsiung City Government Education Bureau Director-General Tsai Ching-hwa (蔡清華), visited schools in their areas to see how the temperature-monitoring programs were being implemented.
The Ministry of Education’s “325” policy suggests schools suspend a class for up to five days if more than two students in the class are diagnosed with flu within three days of each other. It says students with a high fever should stay home, while students whose parents have the flu should wear facemasks at school.
Ministry statistics show there were cluster infections at about 20 schools over the summer holiday.
The director-general of the ministry’s Department of Physical Education, Wang Chun-chuan (王俊權), said suspending classes would be the most effective approach to preventing cluster infections.
Vice Minister of Education Lu Mu-lin (呂木琳) said the ministry would begin random tests of principals’ knowledge of swine flu prevention starting today.
“Preventing infection is like a war. Everyone should know every detail very well,” Lu said.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that the “325” policy was not compulsory.
“The ‘325’ procedure is just a reference. [Schools] do not have to follow it but can set their own standards,” CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) said.
“As school began today, we will pay close attention to the changes in the epidemic over the next two weeks,” Kuo said. “It is our hope that sick children will be kept at home instead of continuing to spread the virus by going to school or public places.”
The CDC also said it had decided to distribute an extra 250,000 doses of Tamiflu to hospitals today and an additional 2 million surgical masks will be available at convenience stores by the weekend. It confirmed that five more people had been hospitalized with swine flu.
Kuo said that 80 people were now hospitalized with the disease, the youngest of which was a 23-month-old girl who was recovering.
Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the government might have to consider postponing the year-end city and county chief elections if there were a serious epidemic.
“There would inevitably be speeches or rallies if we were to hold the elections. The virus would spread very fast during such events,” Wang said.
Fan Bao-lo (范保羅), director-general the Ministry of National Defense’s Medical Affairs Bureau, said that six more soldiers from two units had been confirmed to have minor cases of swine flu. One has been hospitalized and the others were quarantined at their camps.
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