Federal officials now recommend that schools stop closing when a case of swine flu is confirmed at a school, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday.
Scientists believe the H1N1 virus epidemic is no more dangerous than seasonal flu, and schools should act accordingly, Sebelius said.
“This virus does not seem to be as severe as we once thought it would be,” she said at a news conference at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sick students should be kept home for seven days, she said, “but the schools should feel comfortable about opening.”
Schools that have been closed can reopen, Sebelius said.
There were 702 probable and 403 confirmed cases in 44 states on Tuesday, said Dr. Richard Besser, the CDC’s acting director.
In a pandemic, closing schools has a definite benefit, Besser said. But closing during a general flu outbreak is not required, he said.
“When you get to situations that are approaching general flu, then the downside of closing schools outweighs the benefits,” Besser said.
And federal officials have been hearing from local officials “how incredibly difficult and burdensome school closure is,” he said.
He called the new guidance “a science-based decision that involves a lot of judgment.”
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed swine flu cases worldwide has increased to 1,490 in 23 countries, most of them in Mexico and the United States, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
That number includes 822 confirmed cases in Mexico, including 29 deaths, according to the WHO’s Web site.
WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Keiji Fukuda said 405 cases worldwide and four deaths in Mexico have been confirmed since Monday evening.
The increase reflects confirmations of previously reported infections as well as newly reported cases, Fukuda said.
The 403 confirmed U.S. cases, including one death, are in 38 states, most of them in New York (90), Illinois (82), California (49) and Texas (42), the CDC said Tuesday.
Mexican officials, citing improvement in the battle against the virus, announced plans to reopen government offices and restaurants on Wednesday — and museums, libraries and churches the following day.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged claims by Mexican authorities who believe their cases have peaked. “I have no reason to think that is inaccurate,” Napolitano said.
“What the epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain of H1N1 is that the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu — how sick you get — is not stronger than regular seasonal flu.”
But officials from WHO and the CDC plan to monitor developments in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season arrives over the next few months as winter begins there.
Those results will help determine whether a stronger strain of the virus will return to the United States and the Northern Hemisphere during the fall flu season.
Mexican officials ordered a wide-ranging shutdown of Mexico City last week. The weeklong closure encompasses the Cinco de Mayo holiday Tuesday.
University and secondary school students can return to class Thursday, while younger students will wait until Monday.
Other public venues in the city such as bars, nightclubs, theaters and sports stadiums will remain closed indefinitely.
In all, about 35,000 public venues were shut down, transforming the bustling metropolis of 20 million people into a ghost town overnight.
Soccer games were postponed, restaurants only served takeout, and Sunday Mass — which usually draws millions of worshippers — was canceled.
“It’s surreal to say the least. And the masks add to that,” said Cristiano Oliveira, a Brazilian living in Mexico City for the last year and a half. “There was, to me, at least the impression that Mexico City would never slow down. And now it’s halted.”
In the city’s Condesa neighborhood, Alfredo Sono Dillman whiled away the days watching movies on a home computer.
“We all live inside our houses because the schools have been canceled until May 11,” Alfredo, 15, said. “I’m not scared like last week. This week has been easier. Now we know much better what is going on.”
Doctors at the Mexico City Naval Hospital offered similar optimism. The hospital has examined more than 2,000 patients since Wednesday. None of them tested positive for swine flu, Dr. Manuel Velasco said.
“That may mean the virus is stabilizing and then can be totally controlled,” Velasco said. “But we have to wait for the new week to begin.”
Early Tuesday, the Mexican and Chinese government sent chartered flights to each other’s countries to pick up their respective nationals stranded or quarantined because of the global swine flu outbreak.
An Aeromexico flight made several stops Tuesday throughout China to collect nearly 70 Mexican citizens who were being held in quarantine across the communist nation as part of its strict swine flu-control measures.
The flight landed in Beijing and Shanghai before heading to the southern city of Guangzhou, state media reported. It is expected to leave for Mexico via Hong Kong at around midnight local time (noon ET.) At least two Mexicans remain in quarantine in Beijing.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy official said four Americans are or were quarantined in China: two in Beijing and two in the southern Guangdong province.
China suspended all flights into and out of Mexico after a 25-year-old Mexican man who arrived Thursday in Shanghai from Mexico City became the Asian country’s first confirmed case of the virus.
As a result, 200 Chinese citizens were stranded in Mexico City and Tijuana. A China Southern Airlines flight was expected to fetch them Tuesday, state media said.
WHO officials said there were no immediate plans to raise its pandemic alert to the highest level, from 5 to 6.
