Hong Kong will reopen primary schools, special schools and kindergartens on Monday after a seasonal flu outbreak has eased off, the region's top health official said yesterday, a Guangdong-based newspaper reported today

Scientists have also confirmed that no new, deadlier strains have emerged from Hong Kong's recent influenza outbreak, the official added.

Hong Kong government decided to close all primary schools and kindergartens for two weeks on March 13 after four local children died of flu in February. More than half a million students are kept at home.

Some secondary schools in Hong Kong have also reported suspected flu outbreaks, and four have closed voluntarily as of last Friday, previous reports said.

Flu cases stopped increasing after schools were closed, Nanfang Metropolis Daily said, citing Dr Tsang Ho-fai, Controller of the Center for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, who made the remarks in a radio program in Hong Kong.

The center will urge the schools to take temperatures of children every day and renovate ventilation and hand-cleaning facilities after reopening as the flu season will continue, Tsang added.

Tsang said schools and parents should keep children with a fever or cough at home until they show no symptoms, the report said.

Since March 6, there have been 18 confirmed cases and 106 suspected cases in a city of nearly seven million. Most cases have been confined to schools.

There are 76 flu cases on average among every thousand patients in private hospitals, 20 percent more than last year, Tsang said.

The center received five child flu suspect cases on Monday. One has left hospital and the others were in stable condition.

Tsang said the flu peak in neighboring Guangdong Province may appear a month after the outbreak in Hong Kong, while the Guangdong government said it hasn't detected an unusual increase in flu cases recently.

Guangdong's health department said in a statement on its Website on March 14 that it recorded five flu outbreaks this year across the province, with each outbreak involving at least 15 cases a week.

That figure was a bit higher than the same period last year, but the virus was less virulent, the health department said.

(Shanghai Daily March 19, 2008)