Global Airport News

Japan confirmed on Wednesday that 207 people in the west of the country, mostly in their teens, had been infected with the new H1N1 strain of flu, and thousands of schools closed to try to halt the spread of the disease.

No cases have been reported yet in the capital Tokyo in the east, although four people returning from abroad were found to be infected when they arrived at Narita airport, near the city.

Nobody has died of the virus in Japan and most cases have been mild, a Health Ministry spokesman said. The H1N1 strain has killed 81 people and been confirmed in nearly 10,000 globally.

About 4,500 schools, mostly in the western prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo, have closed their doors until the end of the week. The local government in neighboring Shiga prefecture was also urging its schools to follow suit.

A university campus in Shiga was also closed, affecting 18,000 students, after one of them was infected with the virus.

A hospital in the port city of Kobe, where a member of staff had been infected, was to ban visits to flu patients, Kyodo news agency said.

Japanese Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said on Tuesday the government was considering winding down strict health checks at international airports at the end of the week, adding that they had been imposed to try to buy time before an outbreak in Japan.

Many passengers on public transport in urban areas have been wearing surgical masks in an effort to avoid infection, and domestic media said stocks of masks were running short.

The vast majority of H1N1 cases are in Mexico and the United States, but the spread of the disease to about 40 countries led the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic was imminent at the end of April.

Its pandemic alert level is now 5 on a 6-level scale.