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Latest update: 12/08/2009
- France - health - INFLUENZA A (H1N1) - schools
France ready to close all schools to combat swine flu
France's ministry of education is considering closing all schools in the event of a major swine flu outbreak in September. Authorities are also currently working on distance-learning material to help students who may be forced to stay at home.
AFP - France's minister of education is ready to close all of the country's schools in the event of a major swine flu outbreak, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"In case of a complete pandemic we are ready to close all of the schools in France," Luc Chatel was quoted as saying by Le Figaro, a Paris-based daily.
"No threshold has been fixed for the closing of a school. It will be adapted on a case-by-case basis," said the minister.
Chatel added that the mass vaccination of children was not yet an issue.
French authorities have, over the summer, worked on distance learning materials that can be broadcast on television, radio and the Internet to help students forced to stay home keep up with their classes, he added.
France has recorded around one thousand swine flu infections and one death, but authorities are concerned the resumption of school will fuel a sharp acceleration in the spread of the virus.
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Comments (1)
Misleading Title
So they are not planning to close the schools however they have a plan in place should the conditions on the ground warrent it. How is that really news? Every government and school district in the world has a backup plan in case of a emergency. This is a bunch of sensationalized nonsense. Who really is afraid of the swine flu anyways? The normal influenza kills 50,000 a year in the US. This has barely killed 150. A bunch of hyped BS so the pharmoseutical companies can make a killing off of vaccines. I would worry more about the vaccine, in the us in the 1970s there was a swine flu "pandemic" that never really materialized but thousands died from the vaccine. Others got permanent neurological damage. Look up on youtube, 60 minutes 1970s swine flu.