Millions of Mexican children, many of them wearing surgical masks and clutching hand sanitizer, went back to classes on Monday after a two-week shutdown of schools because of the new flu virus.
The H1N1 flu strain has killed more than 50 people in Mexico, the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak that has spread to several dozen countries and sparked fears of global a pandemic.
Schools throughout Mexico were scrubbed from floor to ceiling last week and the 20 million students who returned on Monday were told to follow strict hygiene rules.
PHOTO: AP
“If everyone respects them, we’re going to have a safe and healthy return [to school],” Mexican Education Minister Alonso Lujambio said.
Some high school and university students returned last week as Mexico got back to normal after shutting down large parts of the country to prevent infection. Cinemas, offices, soccer stadiums and even churches were ordered closed.
Children arrived at school gates on Monday wearing face masks.
“I know it’s to protect us but the mask is very uncomfortable. It makes me itchy,” said Pamela, a 10-year-old pupil at a school in the capital.
The death toll in Mexico from the H1N1 flu outbreak that has spread globally has risen to 56, the health ministry said as results of tests on people who died in recent weeks came in.
Mexico has had a total of 2,059 cases of swine flu distributed throughout all but three of the country’s 32 states, Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said.
Mexico had previously reported 48 deaths from the new flu, a genetic mixture of swine, bird and human viruses.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Public Health Ministry on Monday evening announced the island’s first case of H1N1 flu infection in a Mexican exchange student.
A statement from the ministry said the case was detected after special monitoring of Mexican students returning to Cuba from Easter break.
State-run TV said that two students were hospitalized and quarantined, while 14 others with mild symptoms of colds or flu were under observation.
Cuban health officials previously examined 84 people from eight nationalities for possible infection from the new influenza strain, along with 511 Cuban patients. All tested negative for the virus, officials said.
The Public Health Ministry said it had tightened controls at airports and seaports, as well as monitoring at all health facilities nationwide.
“We are adopting all the necessary measures and have the resources, capacity and properly trained personnel to address the international situation and its evolution,” the ministry statement said.
Cuba suspended flights to and from Mexico on April 28.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS