CAIRO: Alexandria Governor Adel Labib ordered the closure of two international schools in Alexandria after two students tested positive for H1N1.
On Monday, Labib closed down the British School of Alexandria (BSA) and the American School of Alexandria (ASA) indefinitely after two H1N1 cases were reported in both schools.
In a press statement, Labib said that the governorate has taken all the necessary precautionary measures to deal with such emergencies and that all the main hospitals are prepared.
Classes had started early in both schools, like most international schools and universities in Egypt. Public schools are scheduled to open their doors on Sept. 26.
Minister of Education Yousry El-Gamal said the ministry devised a plan to deal with the H1N1 virus in schools that depends mainly on “awareness and the immediate and proper treatment of each new case.
He explained that students will not be separated. “We will avoid any decision that might affect school attendance, El-Gamal told Egypt’s local news program.
In a joint press conference last month, Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly and El-Gamal said that both ministries will work together along with the different governorates to fight the spread of H1N1 in schools.
On a related note, the Ministry of Health announced 16 new cases of H1N1, raising Egypt’s total number of cases to 799. Fifteen of the new cases are Egyptians and the remaining case is a Polish citizen who recently arrived in Egypt.
In an official statement, the ministry indicated that while the virus is still mild, it poses a bigger threat to children, pregnant women and people with heart disease or complications in the respiratory system.
EgyptAir announced Monday that number of Umrah trips has decreased by 25 percent compared to the number of trips it scheduled at the same time last year.
However the coming few weeks will witness a slight increase in the number of trips, as Muslims flock to Saudi Arabia during the last 10 days of Ramadan. According to EgyptAir, seven new trips to Jeddah and Medina will be added by the end of this week.
