Swine flu has forced pupils from two more Auckland schools to be sent into home isolation today following a weekend in which the national tally of confirmed cases more than doubled.
Westlake Girls High School yesterday announced seven days of isolation for its whole year 12 group of around 450 pupils.
This afternoon it has emerged that two more schools in the region, on instructions from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, have sent pupils and staff home for seven days. They are:
* Kowhai Intermediate in Kingsland: One year 8 class and its teacher.
* St Patrick's School in Panmure: The whole of the 145-pupil, year 1-8 school has been closed.
At each school, one case of swine flu has been confirmed and a number of other pupils have flu-like symptoms.
* Papatoetoe High School in south Auckland has one student with swine flu, the Auckland Regional Public Health Service confirmed, but the school has not yet made any decision to send students home.
The number of confirmed cases of swine flu has risen to 86, an increase of 15 from yesterday, Health Minister Tony Ryall said today.
Until Saturday, all of New Zealand's cases of the disease - characterised so far in this country by mild or moderate but still unpleasant symptoms - were linked to overseas travel.
But now, an increasing number of cases are not even indirectly linked to overseas travel, indicating, as expected, that the A/H1N1 virus is starting to spread easily in the community.
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