Yesterday, Francisco Duque III, the Health Secretary had confirmed that there is now a low-level community outbreak of the H1N1 virus in Metro Manila with most affected areas include Quezon City, Manila and Paranaque City.  An additional 28 infected individuals adds to a total of 473 cases as of yesterday for the country’s total infected of the H1N1 virus.

It’s just a low-level community outbreak as there are no huge clustered cases in the Metro Manila area yet but just small numbers of cases from schools. Several schools in the area had suspended classes because of H1N1 cases from their students including Lagro High Schoo., Colegio de Sta. Rosa, Assumption College and University of Sto. Tomas among several others.

3 schools that had also confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus are St. Mary’s College in Caloocan, St. Paul’s College in Makati, Holy Spirit in Fairview as well as in Cubao.

Though this may seem alarming but if you consider the number of schools in the area compared to those that had been affected, you’d see that it’s indeed just a very small fraction of the total number of schools. The infected individuals are also very small compared to the number of students studying in that school. It would be very alarming if an entire school is infected.