Chinese schools ordered to ramp up flu prevention measures ahead of new semester_English_Xinhua .

Last Friday the Ministry of Health announced fairly strict H1N1 rules on schools, especially the fact that students who have close contact with an H1N1 patient are required to be quarantined at home for seven days.

Fortunately, the H1N1 virus is still not any more serious than the normal flu. I suspect the next few weeks will see a huge wave of cases, as school restarts and children get in close contact. But I don’t think these new measures will do anything more than slightly slow down this inevitable wave of a normal virus.  As always, take precautions, try to avoid sick persons, and carry around Purell!