More than 1,000 pupils and staff at a school in south London will be given Tamiflu as public health officials confirmed nine additional cases of swine flu across the UK, taking the national total to 27.
Five pupils in year 7 at Alleyn's school in Dulwich, south-east London, tested positive for the virus and, after advice from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the school will close for a week. The new cases had come into contact with a pupil, already diagnosed with H1N1 at the weekend, who had recently returned from the United States. All the new cases are recovering well at home.
"Our advice is please don't panic," said Antony Faccinello, senior deputy head at Alleyn's school. "Parents should keep reading our website for advice and stick to that advice. We want them to come into the school to collect their child's preventative dose of Tamiflu."
They would be in touch with other local schools about the situation to help prevent further spread of the disease. Alleyn's shares facilities, including buses, with at least two other schools, James Allen's girls' school and Dulwich College.
The HPA said about 1,200 people, including pupils and staff at Alleyn's, would be offered the antiviral treatment. A course of Tamiflu involves a pill a day for 10 days; younger children will be given smaller amounts.
Alleyn's school is also rushing to reschedule some exams which were due to take place this week, including the GCSE art final and Year 12 modern language oral tests. The exams watchdog, Ofqual, and the Qualification and Curriculum Authority will meet on Thursday with exam boards and representatives from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly to discuss this year's exams. Next week's Sats tests are expected to go ahead as planned in primary schools. A-level and GCSE exams are scheduled from now into June.
In addition to the five Alleyn's cases, two further children newly in London were confirmed as being infected with H1N1 – siblings who came into contact with a separate confirmed case in the city. Last night their school, the Dolphin school in Battersea, said it was to close for a few days as a precautionary measure. The Department of Health yesterday said there were 23 confirmed cases in England and four in Scotland. More than 330 cases are still being investigated by the HPA.
Independent schools were issued with advice over the weekend of what to do in the case of a pandemic, mirroring that already supplied by the DCSF to state schools. They are advised to set up text systems to inform parents of school closures, and web access for pupils to work from home if necessary. The advice, drawn up by lawyers for the Independent Schools Council, says: "Consider whether extra space will be required for effective quarantine of suspected victims."
Melvyn Roffe, chairman of the Boarding Schools' Association, said they had been in daily contact with government officials monitoring the potential for an outbreak among boarding pupils. "We are stocking up on cleaning equipment and making contingency plans."
Another suspected case of H1N1 came to light in Scotland – the fifth in eight days. A traveller from Fife thought to have contracted the virus in Las Vegas is under voluntary quarantine.
Health authorities issued an alert at the weekend for passengers on board a FlyBe short haul flight from Birmingham to Glasgow on 30 April after a man from Ayrshire and Arran fell ill. He tested positive for swine flu and is being treated at home.
Meanwhile, a relative of the first Britons to catch the virus, Iain and Dawn Askham, from Polmont near Edinburgh, has been flown home from a North Sea oil rig as a precaution. But he is not showing any symptoms, and is not among the 19 other "possible" cases in Scotland. According to the WHO, 21 countries had officially reported 1,085 cases of H1N1 infection.
