Children are taught to wear medical masks at a primary school in Ho Chi Minh City.

Education authorities at large cities nationwide have sterilized schools and are ready to teach students prevention measures against influenza A (H1N1) as millions of them officially start the new school year Monday.

Le Tien Dung, president of Lomonosov High School, the first infected school in Hanoi, said ten students that got the H1N1 virus had already recovered last Wednesday.

Other infected schools including Doan Thi Diem, Nam Thanh Dong primary schools and Nguyen Du Junior High have sterilized classrooms. Teachers at Doan Thi Diem School have asked the children to bring face masks.

No school in the city will delay the school year due to the flu, said Nguyen Hiep Thong of Hanoi Department of Education and Training.

The departments are also sending out 15 inspection teams today to check how schools have readied for a possible H1N1 outbreak, he said.

“We want the schools to be careful but not make the students scared.”

Officer Tran Quang Quy of the Ministry of Education and Training told Thanh Nien Sunday the ministry has not been informed of any school year delay due to H1N1 infections.

The new school year in Ho Chi Minh City is “not starting smoothly.”

Nguyen Tien Dat, deputy director of HCM Department of Education and Training, said the city will try not to close schools but quarantine the classes instead if any infections occur so that schools won’t be interrupted.

Ten tons of Chloramine B was sprayed at all schools in the city Sunday, Dat said, adding further spraying like that will be done at least once a week through this school year.

The outbreak at Le Hong Phong High School in District 5 has been put under control as ten infected students and eight suspected are under treatment in stable conditions, said Director Nguyen Thi Su of the district Preventive Health and Environment Center.

Meanwhile in Can Tho City of the Mekong Delta, the Department of Education and Training has set up steering committees at province and district levels to assist schools in the area.

Those committees would be authorized to close schools in case of infections and set up temporary clinics there.

There’ve been three infections reported in Can Tho so far including two overseas Vietnamese and one local after a trip to Malaysia.

Da Nang City in the central region has even set up H1N1 flu steering committees at each school.

Dozens of schools in the city have asked to be sterilized before the school year starts today.

Huynh Van Hoa, director of Da Nang Department of Education and Training, also ordered schools to regularly inform the department of their flu fighting situation.

Vietnam’s Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed 37 new H1N1 cases, raising the country’s tally to 1,454 including two deaths in HCMC and the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa. More than 1,000 have recovered fully while others are being treated in stable condition.

Truong Quoc Cuong, head of the ministry’s pharmacy department, said medical suppliers found buying and selling tamiflu, or selling the medicine at high prices will be fined up to VND100 million ($5,847) and have their business license suspended for 12 months.

As of Sunday, influenza A (H1N1) has infected 227,562 people in 168 countries and territories, killing 2,073, according to the European Center of Diseases Control and Prevention.

More trans-Viet college members infected

Test results from the National Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases on Sunday showed a further 25 members of the trans-Viet travel team of HCMC Culture, Arts and Tourism College positive with the H1N1 virus, the newswire VietNamNet said.

The group of 185 left HCMC on July 27. Five of them tested positive with the virus on August 8 when they arrived at the mountainous province of Lao Cai and 36 others developed the flu when they continued to Hanoi last Monday.

The first five patients have recovered.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff