Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 19-May-2009 15:37 hrs
A mother and daughter leave Osaka's Nisitenma elementary school after classes were cancelled. Japan reported 178 swine flu infections and closed more than 4,000 schools, colleges and kindergartens for the rest of the week to slow the spread of the virus, officials said.A total of 4,043 kindergartens, schools, colleges and universities were closed for at least this week in the two prefectures at the request of the government, up from some 2,000 Monday, an education ministry official said.
Neighbouring Kyoto prefectures closed eight schools voluntarily.
Japan's number of confirmed cases rose to 178 -- the fourth largest national figure on the world infection table, according local authorities.
Japan's first confirmed cases of swine flu were four people who tested positive after they flew in from North America earlier this month. They were immediately quarantined along with about 50 fellow passengers.
The central government has been revising its anti-virus measures, which previously focused on stopping infected persons at the borders and quarantining them before they could leave the airports.
"Day by day, we have to change what action we should take," Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told a news conference, adding that the ministry may scale down airport quarantine measures gradually.
Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said the government was ready to take action to fend off a possible impact of the outbreak on the Japanese economy already battered by the worst recession since World War II.
"Economies obviously declined -- although temporarily -- when a bird flu outbreak occurred," Yosano told reporters. "We have to consider measures to limit the effect." — AFP
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
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This time, it is from the US - for the world!
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