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THE specter of the H1N1 virus didn't scare students nor tourists as shown by figures from the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) and the Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC).
The DepEd-7 said about 1.3 million enrolled in both public and private elementary and secondary schools which met their projections for this school year.
Dr. Clara Palani, acting chief of DepEd-7's planning unit, said they expect more students before the end of June.
She said schools already instructed teachers to bring alcohol and sanitizer if they have inadequate water supply.
Palani said DepEd-7 Regional Director Recaredo Borgonia required schools to confine students displaying swine flu-like symptoms and send them home.
But so far, Palani said not a single case of H1N1 N was reported.
The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) earlier advised schools to send flu-stricken students home and require them to undergo a 10-day quarantine to verify their condition.
For hoteliers, business is still the same despite reports of cases under observation (CUOs) for possible swine flu infection in Cebu.
Aissa dela Cruz, HRRAC executive director, said some big hotels in Cebu retained their bookings while others only sustained minimal losses.
Dela Cruz said HRRAC members met with the DOH-7 to be updated on the status of H1N1 and were assured that conditions in the country were not as serious as in Mexico.
She said reports of H1N1 cases won't affect events like the Cebu Food Expo ?09, the biggest food and hospitality event in the Visayas and Mindanao scheduled on July 9 to 11 at the Pacific Ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
Health authorities said initial findings showed that CUOs are mostly children and employed group.
They said there were 29 patients aged between zero and 12 years old in Central Visayas since they started monitoring the disease last May 4.
Dr. Cora Lou Kintanar, Pandemic Influenza Incident Command spokesperson, said there are 41 patients between 26 years old and 45 years old.
She suggested that children be vaccinated with the seasonal flu in order to ?at least eliminate one virus.?
Kintanar said nearly 200 persons were affected by the mild form of the H1N1 virus so the DOH changed its campaign from containment to mitigation.
?There are patients who are treated in the out patient department. There is no need for them to be confined in a hospital. Some cases are observed to exhibit symptoms similar to the seasonal flu,? she said.
As of June 16, the DOH-7 has recorded 93 CUOs, 25 pending laboratory tests and 64 patients that tested negative.
She noted though that the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM), which remains the only laboratory accredited to perform tests on throat and oro-pharyngeal swabs on CUOs, are having a difficult time coping with the increase in the number of cases.
In an earlier interview, Kintanar identified Armed Forces Research Institute for Medical Science (AFRIMS), a private facility located within the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center compound, which has been earmarked to cater to patients coming from the Visayas region.
?There is another laboratory being considered in Davao, which would be catering to patients from the Mindanao region,? she said.
