Hong Kong's top health official announced here Wednesday night that all primary schools, special schools and kindergartens in the city will close for two weeks starting from Thursday, due to seasonal flu outbreaks.

Dr. York Chow, secretary for Food and Health of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government made the announcement after the Department of Health and the Bureau of Education met Wednesday night to review the data of the flu and the response of parents.

"We made the decision given the rising trend of flu infections within the community as the flu peak is expected to continue for weeks," Chow told reporters.

"We hope such precautionary measures will help reduce the cross infection of the flu virus in schools and the community."

On Wednesday morning, Chow said that an expert group will do its best to investigate the recent deaths of three children with flu-like symptoms, adding that at this stage, no common factors have been identified.

He said the most important thing at the moment is to grasp a clear picture of the outbreaks and whether they are spreading.

On Wednesday, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) received reports of influenza-like illness (ILI) outbreaks affecting 23 schools involving a total of 184 people.

A CHP spokesman said ILI may be caused by influenza or other respiratory viruses. CHP's officials have visited all these institutions and provided health advice to the staff accordingly.

CHP will provide the public with information on seasonal influenza starting Thursday. A hotline will operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday.

CHP received a report from Hospital Authority Wednesday concerning a three-year-old boy who was admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital Tuesday because of persistent fever, cough and shortness of breath.

The boy was transferred to Intensive Care Unit and is now in stable condition, said the spokesman, adding that initial investigation showed his respiratory sample yielded positive results for influenza A (H1N1). Further tests are under progress.

Regarding the death of a seven-year-old boy with respiratory and neurological symptoms in Tuen Mun Hospital, the spokesman said further laboratory tests showed that the boy's respiratory sample yielded positive results for influenza A (H1N1).

On the death of a 21-month-old boy who passed away on February 24, the spokesman said that examination of the boy's respiratory sample yielded negative results for Influenza A and B.

"There is no evidence at the present stage suggesting the boy has contracted influenza. Further investigation is ongoing," he said.

The Hospital Authority (HA) on Wednesday announced that a special fund of 20 million HK dollars (2.6 million U.S. dollars) had been set aside to implement a series of measures run up to the end of April this year to cope with recent surge in demand for public hospital services due to seasonal influenza.

Public hospitals have been experiencing a prolonged increase in emergency demand lately, in particular the emergency medical admissions, HA Chief Executive Shane Solomon told the media during a visit to the North District Hospital Wednesday afternoon.

"Compared with February last year, the daily number of emergency medical admissions is 16 percent higher. At the same time, recent admission to pediatric wards in public hospitals has also surged," he said.

The sudden and unprecedented surge in demand in medical and pediatric wards has created great pressure on the front-line staff, who have worked extra hours, with many of them canceling leave, working longer hours and on their days off, he said.

"Over the last two weeks, an additional 15,000 hours of extra nursing and supporting staff have worked, adding the equivalent of 192 full-time staff to the ward," he said.

To cope with the recent surge, various hospital clusters have opened extra beds and implemented other initiatives to cope with patient needs.

Solomon also reassured the public that the HA will closely monitor the situation on a daily basis to plan for further measures.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 13, 2008)