The French school year has got off to a chaotic start, with schools closing in the Paris region, Alpes-Maritimes, Ariège, Lot and Aude, due to students reporting symptoms of the A(H1N1) virus.

SNPDEN, the main union for secondary school heads in France, pushed for “pedagogical continuity” in classes closed because of the virus.

Officials are calling for calm. Marc Gentilini, Professor of Tropical and Infectious Disease at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, said, “We're going to end up with a country at a standstill - watch out; we're making too big of a deal out of it.”

France received its first batch of the newly developed influenza A vaccine on Thursday, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot has reported.

Elsewhere, a 28-year old woman died in the French territory of Reunion on Tuesday of Influenza A(H1N1). It was the island’s third such death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that more than 2,800 people had died from the A(H1N1) virus worldwide. The virus, which originated in the Americas, has been detected in nearly every country in the world.