Easing recommendations that have closed scores of schools nationwide, federal health authorities said May 5 that the new swine flu spreading across America is too mild to warrant continued closures, reports the Sacramento Bee. Schools with a few sick children or teachers no longer need to shut down for a week or more, and those that have closed can reopen, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an advisory later echoed by California’s Department of Public Health. Even so, El Dorado County decided that the one school it had shut because of the H1N1 flu should stay closed all week, as planned, to better combat the spread of the new virus, said Dr. Dean Kelaita, the county’s interim health officer.
The decision was made partly because Camino School had a cluster of cases, with one confirmed and three others suspected, and partly because logistically the school could not have reopened until May 7 anyway, Kelaita said. "Just as the decision to close a school is very serious, so is the decision to reopen if it’s only for a day or two," involving yet another round of dislocations and changed plans for families, he said…
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