Flu fears shut schools

While students are enjoying a three-day vacation from school, Park City residents are on high alert, already donning surgical masks while they hit the stores to stockpile groceries — especially anything anti-bacterial.

"Just in case. I work around a lot of people and I have kids at home. I don't want to bring anything home to them," said Jimmie Morgan, 29, Murray.

Morgan was annoyed to find the shelves at his favorite store barren of anti-bacterial hand gel. He works construction in Park City and said there generally isn't a place to wash his hands on the job site.

Parent Jill Kopish of Park City said she saw three teen girls shopping with surgical masks on Thursday. "This is crazy," Kopish said. She was running from store to store to find anti-bacterial gel. She is also stocking up on meat and flour to make homemade bread.

Park City School District Superintendent Ray Timothy stands by his decision to close all eight of the district's schools until Tuesday because samples from three students are being tested by the national Centers for Disease Control to determine if they have swine flu. Monday already was an "out day," he said.

"We just want to make sure our students are safe," Timothy told the Deseret News.

Park City School Board gathered for an emergency meeting Wednesday that ran from 8 p.m. until after midnight. They consulted with county health department officials and the physicians who had seen the three patients.

"We were all anxious, but by the end we were confident we made the right decision," said board president Kim Carson.

The physicians had called district administrators to alert them to the situation.

The three cases were students attending a Park City elementary and middle school. District officials opted for closing all schools since siblings could be infected. Several families had gone to Mexico for spring break, which ended April 19, Carson said.

Test results for one student are expected to be back Friday. Results for the other could be in by Monday. If one case is positive, health officials have recommended closing school for a week, Timothy said.

Elsewhere in Utah, two private Catholic schools are closed until Tuesday: Judge Memorial Catholic High School and Our Lady of Lourdes School. A presenter at the Judge Memorial Nancy Miller Memorial Day on April 27 has been identified as having swine flu, school officials said.