Sent packing: Boarding schools in the city, such as Nguyen Khuyen Private High School which is shown here, have been temporarily closed for the summer after influenza A outbreaks hit two high schools

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has ordered all its boarding schools to close and send students back home for the summer as an H1N1 outbreak hit a second high school in the southern hub.

Also, six more students at Ngo Thoi Nhiem High School in District 9 tested positive for the disease Thursday, raising the school’s tally to 72, including five teachers, since the first case was recorded on Sunday. The school was cordoned off to set up a temporary clinic on the same day.

The infection source at Nguyen Khuyen Private High School was identified as a student from Ngo Thoi Nhiem High School, the department said.

A 12th grade Nguyen Khuyen student had gone out with her friend from Ngo Thoi Nhiem before showing flu-like symptoms on Tuesday. Later tests found she had contracted H1N1 flu. The two had reportedly visited a supermarket and a bookstore in Tan Binh District.

Another student from Nguyen Khuyen Private High School Thursday tested positive for H1N1 flu while more than 50 others were being quarantined at the school, where a temporary clinic was set up on the same day. These students either had high temperatures or had been in contact with the two flu-positive students.

Around 2,300 students were taking a summer course at the private school, of which 1,800 were boarders. Doctors have examined them and allowed a majority to come home.

Nguyen Van Chau, director of HCMC Department of Health, said quarantining such a large number of students at the school could increase the chances of more infections among them.

“We have worked with the school to take their addresses and requested local health authorities to monitor their health,” he said.

The students were taken home by their relatives or by the school buses to avoid possibly infecting others in the community.

At the Kumon Elementary School, two students on Thursday tested positive for Influenza A and the source of infection was identified to be from a foreigner, Chau said.

Two students of RMIT University in District 7 and one student at the HCMC University of Natural Sciences were also confirmed of contracting the disease Thursday.

Bui Khac Huy, chief of the HCMC Department of Education and Training office, told VnExpress Thursday all schools in the city would be closed if the outbreaks at school facilities got worse

More than 20 of city’s 180 high schools are boarding schools.

On Wednesday, the department instructed all education and training centers to implement measures against influenza A. Foreign teachers at these centers should stay at home for at least three days after arriving in Vietnam before teaching there, said the department.

The Center of Preventive Health in Dong Nai Province Thursday confirmed a new H1N1 infection in a student returning home from Ngo Thoi Nhiem High School in HCMC.

Three other Ngo Thoi Nhiem students returning to Dong Nai have tested positive for the disease since Sunday.

The center said it had closely monitored the health of another 48 students who had returned to the province from Ngo Thoi Nhiem.

Health authorities in Binh Duong Province on Thursday also confirmed one new H1N1 infection in a student from the HCMC high school, raising the number of flu patients having returned to the province from the school to six.

Four more Ngo Thoi Nhiem students also tested positive for H1N1 in Lam Dong Province Thursday. Earlier, three other students returning from the school to the Central

Reported by Thanh Tung – Lien Chau