Flu Outbreak Forces Over 200 Kindergartens To Shut

More than kindergartens and childcare centres will shut for a week starting from Saturday as a precaution against what officials say is an extraordinarily active winter flu season.

The controller of the Centre for Health Protection, Wong Ka-hing announced the suspensions on Friday.

The proposal to suspend classes at the affected schools was made after an inter-departmental government meeting on Thursday headed by health minister Sophia Chan, he said.

"The outbreaks have been extraordinary, that's why we decided there's a need to take this stronger preventive measure," Wong said.

Officials said the hospitalisation rates for those younger than five have also been high.

But DAB lawmaker Ann Chiang says the government should go the extra mile and suspended classes for all kindergartens and childcare centres across the city – even if none of their students are sick. She said this precaution is needed given the severity of this year's flu outbreak, and the vulnerability of young children.

However, Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki – a doctor – agrees with the government's assessment that a partial suspension is enough.

That said, he says a government vaccination programme for schools needs to be extended to cover all kindergardens and childcare centres. Currently, Kwok says, only around 15 percent of Hong Kong’s 1,000-odd kindergartens and childcare centres have in vaccination programmes in place, which is “significantly lower than we expect.”

Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, meanwhile, is worried that the partial suspension will just leave everyone confused. He says the government needs to give a clear list of exactly which schools are affected.

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