Students streamed into St. Francis Preparatory School on Monday morning, happy to return after an outbreak of swine flu but wary of close contact, and some equipped with hand sanitizer in their backpacks.
Swine flu sickened perhaps as many as 1,000 people associated with the Queens high school, according to the city health department. The school had 45 confirmed cases.
“I'm feeling great now,” said Ivy Buchelli, 16, who said swine flu was confirmed as the reason she had a fever, chills and body aches. “After the long break, I'm glad to see everyone else and how they're doing.”
“I'm just hoping the school's clean,” she added.
Fellow junior Paulina Janowiec, 17, said she also had been diagnosed with swine flu.
“It's a little nerve-racking, being back in school, knowing that there was a swine flu outbreak in school,” she said. “But it's good to be back.”
Despite their illnesses, both girls kept up with her homework through the school's Web site.
The school's 45 confirmed cases of swine flu constitute the bulk of the confirmed cases in New York City. All of the cases have been mild, with symptoms similar to those of seasonal flu -- fever, cough, sore throat, body aches and chills. There have been no deaths in the city.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senate majority leader Malcolm Smith were on hand when the school opened. Bloomberg addressed the kids during the morning announcements. Smith was accompanying his 16-year-old daughter who attends the school. She's taking Tamiflu and is recovering from the swine flu.
Even as St. Francis reopens, the virus continued to spread, leading to newly confirmed infections and school closures around New York and in other states.
There are 73 confirmed swine flu cases in the city and six probably cases, according to the mayor's office. Mayor Bloomberg said three of the cases have no link to Mexico or St. Francis Prep.
Health officials in Syracuse said Sunday that that city's Ed Smith Elementary School would close for a week because of a probable case of swine flu involving a student with a connection to St. Francis. That brings the total number of "probable or confirmed" cases of the illness outside of New York City to 17, according to state health officials.
The Deer Park Union Free School District on Long Island announced Saturday it was closing until May 10 because three students likely have swine flu. The students don't appear to have any connection to St. Francis and haven't recently traveled to Mexico, where the swine flu may have originated, according to a county health commissioner.
The majority of the flu cases in the state have been connected to St. Francis, New York City health officials said. A group of students from the prep school fell ill after traveling to Mexico for spring break.
On Saturday, the city's health department said there was one confirmed case not associated with the school.
Meanwhile, New Mexico officials announced Sunday that 14 schools in four towns were being closed for at least a week after the state's first swine flu case was confirmed. The New Mexico Activities Association also indefinitely suspended athletic and activity programs at participating schools across the state.
In Arizona, all 10 public schools in the border city of Nogales canceled classes this week after a student tested positive for swine flu.
New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene invited several reporters on a tour of the department's lab on Sunday to spotlight the work scientists and lab technicians are doing to test flu samples.
Sara Beatrice, the director of the public health lab, said 175 samples have been tested since the virus emerged. One test that takes only about half an hour determines if a sample is influenza type A or B or neither. A more sophisticated test that takes five and a half hours can determine if a sample is probably H1N1, also known as swine flu.
If the half-hour test shows type A flu -- which includes swine flu -- that gives health officials a head start in surveying other potential victims, Beatrice said.
Starting this week, the lab will be able to pinpoint the H1N1 virus specifically, thanks to a shipment Saturday from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the reagents needed to perform that test.
