Hours after authorities urged public against panic, health officials have advised the education ministry to close all public schools as swine flu spreads across the archipelago.
During a joint emergency press conference, privately run ADK hospital representative in the task force Dr Abdulla Niyaf said 51 people had tested positive for the H1N1 virus thus far. The figure is almost the double the 27 revealed by the task force during a press conference earlier Monday.
More alarmingly, Niyaf also revealed a 26 year old man who died on March 4 had tested positive for the flu, while a pregnant woman remains in critical condition.
Niyaf said reports of the flu were coming in from the islands while Baa, Raa and Haa Dhaal Atolls tops the list. Authorities expect the virus to spread in the coming few days before it would be controlled prompting the decision to close all schools until after the mid-term holidays, Niyad added.
He also advised private educational institutions to shut-down to control the spread.
According to Niyaf, authorities had first flagged the flu spread in January before it gathered pace in February. The sudden surge in the spread has reached level three, which means the outbreak is now nation-wide, he added.
Niyaf said the government would now turn abroad to bring in more vaccines with the spread expected to escalate.
