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MANILA: More than 23 million students were cleared to head back to schools across the Philippines next week despite the threat of H1N1 flu, officials said Saturday.
The new school year will start as scheduled on Monday with 21 million expected at elementary and secondary schools along with 2.6 million others at colleges and universities, according to the education department.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque played down fears raised by some politicians who have called for the start of the school year to be delayed until the outbreak of influenza A(H1N1) has subsided.
But he said school officials were under orders to adopt preventive measures, isolate and send home students showing possible symptoms of the virus, and catalogue their recent travel histories.
Schools with a confirmed H1N1 flu case must declare a week-long holiday and there are also broader measures to deal with more widespread outbreaks.
Schools must be cleaned and sanitised before they are allowed to reopen.
Duque said a 51-year-old man and a 21 year-old woman, both Filipinos, who had recently travelled to the United States, had tested positive for the virus, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Philippines to 16.
- AFP/yt
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