Local Swine Flu Total Now at 28, May Quickly Approach 50

Photograph by Seth Wenig/AP

Mayor Bloomberg announced this afternoon that the number of confirmed instances of swine flu in New York has jumped up to 28, with another 17 probable cases likely to follow. But he emphasized that all of these are still relegated to students from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows and officials reported once again that none of the teenagers afflicted are gravely ill. Bloomberg said, "We have one reported cluster of swine flu at one school."

The mayor also said that students at a Bronx daycare center have all tested negative after there were fears that the virus had spread there. He said, "There are no other clusters evident in New York City."

The same sense of reassurance is not coming from the news out of Mexico, where the swine flu death toll is now at 149. The number of people believed to be infected throughout the nation is over 1,600. Today the European Union advised residents against any unnecessary trips across the Atlantic saying residents “should avoid traveling to Mexico or the United States of America unless it is very urgent for them.”

The city has updated information on its website on what New Yorkers need to know. Bloomberg said that only those treating the affected St. Francis students need to be wearing surgical masks, telling reporters, "For the general public, masks simply are not needed.”

Both Blooomberg and CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser said that they felt the EU's warning against traveling to the US was unnecessary. But Besser wasn't exactly as comforting when he said, "Thankfully, so far we have not seen severe disease in this country as we have seen in Mexico. I wouldn't be overly reassured by that."

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By Billy Parker in News on April 27, 2009 3:19 PM

Comments [rss]

JacqueMehoff

what will this do to the red hook ballfield vendors?

Snoopy

Has this effected the Jewish communities at all?

Past Taliban

Think of this as God's Judgement against you War Criminal fraudsters: He thinks you're PIGS and has given you the corresponding flu to kill you all.

ENJOY!

pinball29

Actually, everyone should be jumping on planes to Mexico right now. Low fares, ultra cheap hotels, empty beaches. But the best part is if you do catch the flu now, it will be mild, and youll be fine in 6 days, and IMMUNE to when the thing gets more virulent and starts taking out a big slice of the population. Just sayin.......

w0wzers

The MTA bus alot of these kids use, drops them off right by Queens Center Mall. Which they then go and hang out in. Now I don't know if any of the kids actually went to the mall, but I definately think someone could catch something if these kids were going there last week after school.

henry.hamilton

There is something your not being told. This is the only reason you mock. If the complete truth were told, you would drop the smug act so fast, revert immediately to panic, and effectively shut down the economy. Your being MANAGED right now. Nothing crazy is required, but you might want to put in a lot of bottled water, and Ice Cream as this particular disease almost entirely shuts down your appetite. Make it creamy ice cream, not the kind of shit loaded with candy bars.

Rocknrope

Oh Henry, bottled water and ice cream are your solutions for everything.

henry.hamilton

I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for everyone. LOL!

safarisafrica

Ok! so everyone is in the hiding! Internet usage in Mexico has increased since the flu. Guess people are at home, blogging..not me!

magicnick

Come on!

When we attach an animal name to the word flu, everybody runs for the hills or starts wearing paper masks!

It's the flu. Bird flu, Swine flu, Snake flu. It's the flu.

Take a few days off, catch up on your blogging, drink lots of fluids and you're good to go.

n

NannyState

H1N1 is a close variant to Avian Flu which killed dozens in Asia and for which there is no cure. Tamiflu eases the symptoms but the virus works by overwhelming your immune system and turning it on itself. Otherwise healthy people have died from this strain so yeah, you might want to rethink that response.