By LIZ ROBBINS
Published: April 30, 2009
Taking extreme precautions to stop the fast-spreading swine flu, Fort Worth became the nation’s first major city school district to close on Thursday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 114 cases in 12 states, up from 91 cases in 10 states on Wednesday.
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced on Thursday afternoon that his state had 5 confirmed cases, even as several more states were awaiting official word from tests sent to the centers, including Illinois, Colorado, Maine, Georgia and Louisiana.
Hundreds of schools across the country have shut down, but the closure of the public schools in Fort Worth, the nation’s 17th-largest city, is the most concentrated. About 80,000 students are expected to be kept out of their classrooms through May 11 in that city, adding to the 53,000 pupils already out of school in Texas, where 26 people have been confirmed with cases of the swine flu.
On Wednesday, the first death from the virus in the United States — a 23-month-old toddler who had traveled with his family from Mexico to Houston — was disclosed. Six people in the United States, including the toddler who died, have been hospitalized, according to the C.D.C.
Elsewhere, the swine flu virus was confirmed in the Netherlands and Switzerland on Thursday, with the World Health Organization now confirming cases in 11 countries . In Canada, the confirmation of 13 additional cases on Thursday brought the total number of cases of swine flu there to 31.
The World Health Organization said Thursday it did not plan to raise its pandemic alert level, one day after the Geneva-based organization raised the level to the second-highest, phase 5, signaling that two countries had sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Officials in the United States, who have said they expected the virus to spread to more states and probably result in more fatalities, applauded the organization’s global warning. Phase 5 of the alert level signifies that a pandemic is imminent and that countries should make preparations for the disease.
“This is a good thing,” Dr. Richard E. Besser, the acting director of the centers, said at news briefing on Thursday in Atlanta. “It doesn’t impact on what we’re doing here, it’s really a wake-up call to the rest of the global community. If you haven’t been paying attention, it’s time to pull out your pandemic plans.”
Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, said at a news conference that there were 50 million courses of anti-viral medication in the national supply, and that the 25 percent of the stockpile would be moved to the most affected states by Sunday. She reiterated what President Obama said Wednesday night in a televised address about shutting the borders from Mexico to limit the spread of the virus.
“Closing the entire borders would have no benefit at this point because the virus is already present in the United States,” Ms. Napolitano said.
New York City, which leads the country in the number of cases concentrated in one area — with 49 — is awaiting confirmation of 16 additional likely cases. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the city’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, said that the city has been stockpiling anti-viral medication and has been in constant communication with hospitals and doctors.
Mayor Bloomberg tried to tamp down people’s anxiety by emphasizing practical measures to limit the spread of infection: he advised staying home from work or school if feeling ill, washing hands and covering mouths.
“We do not recommend using a mask,” he said. “We don’t think the likelihood” of infection goes down that much by using them, he added.
But speaking Thursday morning on NBC’s “Today” show, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said that he had advised his family not to travel in confined spaces like airplanes or subways, where a cough or a sneeze by a person perhaps infected with swine flu could spread the illness.
“That’s me,” the vice president said. “I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway.”
The White House was quick to backtrack, saying that Mr. Biden thinks people should avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico and “if they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public places, such as subways.”
Airline industry officials expressed their disappointment in Mr. Biden’s remarks, and at a nationally televised news conference on Thursday afternoon, the U.S. transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, reiterated that people should not avoid air travel because of fears of the flu. “My message is it is safe to fly, there is no reason to cancel flights,” he said.
Mayor Bloomberg responded to Mr. Biden’s offhand remarks by smiling and saying he took the subway to work — as he always does — and that this was not an issue in New York.
With the World Health Organization reporting on its Web site that there were 257 confirmed cases of the flu worldwide, the 27-nation European Union was expected to announce on Thursday that it would consider a request by France, where 30 possible cases are being investigated, to suspend all flights to and from Mexico.
In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, officials on Thursday confirmed another four deaths linked to the flu, four men and eight women, bringing the total to 12. But 170 more deaths are suspected to have been linked to the flu and as many as 2,500 people are thought to have been infected from the virus. Officials only confirmed 260 cases from the swine flu, even as the country braced for a five-day national shutdown of offices, restaurants, schools and even the stands of soccer stadiums, to begin Friday.
On Thursday, the White House said that a member of the delegation that accompanied President Obama to Mexico in mid-April came down with flu-like symptoms and that three family members tested positive for Type A influenza. That member of the delegation did not fly on Air Force One, according to Robert Gibbs, the chief White House spokesman. The person was asked “if he ever came within six feet of the president, and the answer is ‘no,’” Mr. Gibbs said.
In a nationally televised speech on Wednesday night, the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, said that many public services and private businesses would be closed Friday through Tuesday, encompassing a long holiday weekend. Churches are expected to be nearly empty on Sunday. Health clubs, gyms, museums and movie theaters have closed.
Mexico had already closed its schools earlier this week, affecting more than 33 million students, far overshadowing the number of schools closed in the United States. In New York, two schools were expected to remain closed Friday: St. Francis Preparatory Academy in Fresh Meadows, Queens, the site of the vast majority of flu cases in the city, and P.S. 177, which is expected to confirm five cases of the virus later Thursday.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t several more diagnoses in different counties and regions of the state,” Gov. David A. Paterson of New York said at a news conference on Thursday, where he announced that there were five new cases of probable swine flu outside the city. “The real question is how serious is this H1N1 influenza virus. Most of the people diagnosed recovered without any medication.”
The governor’s use of the clinical name of the virus was not by accident. President Obama on Wednesday referred to the swine flu the same way, as did Dr. Frieden in New York.
Agriculture industry officials have been urging leaders to remove the implication that the disease could be transmitted from eating pork. On Thursday, the World Health Organization noted on its Web site that “from today, WHO will refer to the new influenza virus as influenza A(H1N1).”
Reporting was contributed by Denise Grady in New York; Alan Cowell from London; Sharon Otterman and Sewell Chan from New York; Kate Phillips from Washington; Larry Rohter from Mexico City; Marc Lacey from La Gloria, Mexico; and Ian Austen from Ottawa.
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