Taking extreme precautions to stop the fast-spreading swine flu, Fort Worth became the nation’s first major city school district to close on Thursday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 114 cases in 12 states, up from 91 cases in 10 states on Wednesday.
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced on Thursday afternoon that his state had 5 confirmed cases, even as several more states were awaiting official word from tests sent to the centers, including Illinois, Colorado, Maine, Georgia and Louisiana.
Hundreds of schools across the country have shut down, but the closure of the public schools in Fort Worth, the nation’s 17th-largest city, is the most concentrated. About 80,000 students are expected to be kept out of their classrooms through May 11 in that city, adding to the 53,000 pupils already out of school in Texas, where 26 people have been confirmed with cases of the swine flu.
On Wednesday, the first death from the virus in the United States — a 23-month-old toddler who had traveled with his family from Mexico to Houston — was disclosed. Six people in the United States, including the toddler who died, have been hospitalized, according to the C.D.C.
Elsewhere, the swine flu virus was confirmed in the Netherlands and Switzerland on Thursday, with the World Health Organization now confirming cases in 11 countries.
In Canada, the confirmation of 13 additional cases on Thursday brought the total number of cases of swine flu there to 31. (CBC Radio News just said 34.)
