Mayor Bloomberg announced this afternoon that the number of confirmed instances of swine flu in New York has jumped up to 28, with another 17 probable cases likely to follow. But he emphasized that all of these are still relegated to students from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows and officials reported once again that none of the teenagers afflicted are gravely ill. Bloomberg said, "We have one reported cluster of swine flu at one school."
The mayor also said that students at a Bronx daycare center have all tested negative after there were fears that the virus had spread there. He said, "There are no other clusters evident in New York City."
The same sense of reassurance is not coming from the news out of Mexico, where the swine flu death toll is now at 149. The number of people believed to be infected throughout the nation is over 1,600. Today the European Union advised residents against any unnecessary trips across the Atlantic saying residents “should avoid traveling to Mexico or the United States of America unless it is very urgent for them.”
The city has updated information on its website on what New Yorkers need to know. Bloomberg said that only those treating the affected St. Francis students need to be wearing surgical masks, telling reporters, "For the general public, masks simply are not needed.”
Both Blooomberg and CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser said that they felt the EU's warning against traveling to the US was unnecessary. But Besser wasn't exactly as comforting when he said, "Thankfully, so far we have not seen severe disease in this country as we have seen in Mexico. I wouldn't be overly reassured by that."
