The health ministry is insisting that there is no need to panic, although the Ministry of Education has chosen to close all 69 primary and secondary schools in Manchester following the confirmation of two cases of the influenza A (H1N1) virus in the parish.

One of the cases includes a student at a preparatory school in Mandeville where 13 per cent of the school population have also reported flu-like symptoms.

"There is no need for people to panic," Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer told THE STAR yesterday. "We are just concerned and in trying to protect the nation ... we decided to go that route (of closing the schools)," he continued.

The news of the school closures sent many residents of Manchester into a frenzy yesterday afternoon.

Many people were seen in the Manchester capital, Mandeville, wearing masks or using handkerchiefs to cover their noses and mouths after news broke about the confirmed cases yesterday.

put off graduation exercises

Parents, similarly, rushed to pick-up their children from as early as noon at both private and public schools.

"It (the closure) will affect all our planned programmes. Everything we have now is on hold. But we have to survive," said principal of the Mandeville Primary School, Byron Farquharson.

End-of-year exams were put off and graduation exercises cancelled as the ministry said it was taking no chances.

Yesterday's confirmed cases, along with two others on the weekend, brought the total number of confirmed cases on the island to 19 since May 31.

Up to late yesterday, the Health Ministry said it could not confirm a local spread of the virus as it was still conducting tests.

"We are investigating. When we are finished then we will say what is happening," said Director of Emergency Services in the Ministry of Health Dr Marion Bullock-Ducasse.

"The health team is in the field. As usual, we would contact the persons who had direct contact with the cases and then do their tests," she added.

THE STAR understands that hospital officials at the Mandeville Regional Hospital were kept busy on the weekend as suspected cases of H1N1 began flooding the emergency room from Thursday.

But it was yesterday's release by the Ministry of Education that created a frenzy in Manchester.

The ministry reported that two students had been found to be infected with the virus. However, the Ministry of Health later said that only one child and an adult had been infected.