Hong Kong closes schools as flu surges

Hong Kong will close all kindergartens and primary schools for two weeks after the death of three children admitted to hospital with what the city's government today called influenza-like symptoms.

Kindergartens and primary schools will be shut beginning tomorrow, Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said at a city press briefing televised by cable televisions.

"We will monitor the incident on a day-to-day basis to see what the trend is," Chow said. The government will announce any findings as soon as possible, he said.

A seven-year-old boy died yesterday at the city's Tuen Mun Hospital and the school closed today amid the flu outbreak, Radio Television Hong Kong reported. A three-year-old and 27-month-old have also died. No common factors between the deaths have been identified at this stage, according to the government.

The deaths will be investigated to see whether the virus is mutating, Yuen Kwok-yung, a University of Hong Kong professor in microbiology, said at the presser.

The Hospital Authority said today it will set aside HK$20 million ($2.6 million) to implement measures up to the end of April to cope with the recent surge in demand for public hospital services as a result of the seasonal influenza.

Public hospitals are experiencing a jump in demand, with daily number of emergency admissions last month increasing 16 percent from a year earlier, Shane Solomon, chief executive of the Hospital Authority, said in a separate statement on the government Web site.

Various hospitals have opened 547 extra beds and other initiatives to cope with the increase in patients, Solomon said in the statement. The Authority would monitor the situation daily to see if it needs to enforce further measures, he said.

The city's Education Bureau called on schools to be vigilant in strengthening preventive measures against the spread of influenza, the government said on its Web site today.

The bureau urged schools to keep good ventilation in premises and prepare a stock of masks and related material to minimize the chances of students and teachers contracting the disease.

Hong Kong's health department said on its Web site there were three confirmed influenza outbreaks today with 20 suspected cases. The department advised children with fever and respiratory symptoms to not attend school and said it would provide daily updates.

The government in the city of about 7 million people has formed a group to investigate the deaths of the children, RTHK said, without citing anyone.