The Vancouver Island Health Authority has ordered a Victoria-area elementary school to close after 30 per cent of its students called in sick with flu-like symptoms.
None of the students at Hans Helgesen Elementary School in Metchosin have confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, and that the closure was a precaution.
But the decision to keep students at home comes as health officials in B.C. and across the country try to contain an outbreak that continues to grow.
"We're running tests on the students that are ill just to ensure that we know what we're dealing with," a spokeswoman for the health authority, Shannon Marshall, said in an interview Tuesday evening.
Marshall said between 25 and 30 per cent of students called in sick on Monday and Tuesday. She didn't know how many children stayed home; the local school district's website says about 200 students attend the school.
The school will be closed beginning Wednesday, and won't re-open until at least next week, said Marshall.
It's the third school in B.C. to close over concerns surrounding the flu, although the other two schools had confirmed cases of H1N1.
A school near Burns Lake, B.C., closed last week after three students became ill with swine flu.
And an elementary school in Vernon shut its doors after a student was infected with the virus.
There have so far been 46 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus in British Columbia, including six on Vancouver Island.
All of the people diagnosed with the swine flu in B.C. have either recovered or are recovering.
Across Canada, there have been 165 cases of swine flu, only one of them serious -- a girl in Edmonton.
With files from The Canadian Press
