Parents bring toys to their children who are quarantined after seven from their summer camp were diagnosed with H1N1 flu in Beijing on Saturday. [Xinhua]

Summer camps and other student activities will be cancelled this holiday period to prevent further spread of the H1N1 flu.

Officials at the Ministry of Education yesterday said that student activities, including summer camps, should be held "only when necessary."

In areas with multiple cases of the virus, the local education authority will downgrade the amount and scale of such activities, the announcement said.

In major A/H1N1 flu areas, such activities should be cancelled, the MOE said.

The announcement follows outbreaks among more than 120 students, parents and teachers at several summer camps in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Local education authorities are asking activity organizers to establish flu prevention plans, the announcement said.

Organizers will be held responsible if their negligence results in an outbreak, the announcement said.

Organizations that hold large-scale activities, like summer camps or teenage military training camps, will be required to submit their activity schedule to local education authorities, the announcement said.

The organizers of activities are required to have medical staffs conduct physical examinations of students every day.

If someone becomes sick with flu-like symptoms, the organizers should deal with it appropriately and scientifically, and immediately report the case to the local authority of disease prevention and control. If necessary, the organizers should cancel the activities to prevent the virus spreading.

Several outbreaks have been reported recently. Seven primary and middle school students at a camp organized by the China Juvenile and Children's Publishing House were confirmed infected with the virus.

Some other 77 students from this camp, mainly between 8 to 16 years old, are still under medical observation.

The incident came after 36 out of 80 students were confirmed infected with the virus at another military training camp on July 25.

The Beijing municipal government has taken disciplinary action against the three organizers of the military training camp because they failed to take precautionary measures and a doctor misdiagnosed the first case in the camp.

Deng Ying, director of Beijing disease prevention and control center, said offices in each district have sent at least one medical worker to supervise the camps in case more symptoms appear. Any student with fever and runny nose will be quarantined immediately.

Meanwhile, the capital's education committee has asked schools participating in the 60th national day parade to record the temperature of each student twice a day.

Students also will be required to report their daily temperature in the week before training resumes in August.

A total of 2,152 H1N1 flu cases have been reported on the Chinese mainland. The Minister of Health said that 1,988 of these people were fully recovered as of yesterday. No severe cases or deaths have occurred so far.

(China Daily August 4, 2009)