By Jessica Jaganathan

TWO secondary schools have decided to close for a week after their teachers tested positive for the Influenza A (H1N1) virus on Saturday.

Presbyterian High School in Ang Mo Kio and Westwood Secondary School in Jurong West have asked their students to stay away and do home-based learning for this period.

Hai Sing Catholic School in Pasir Ris also has a teacher infected by H1N1 but the school has decided not to shut down.

All primary and secondary schools as well as junior colleges were supposed to reopen today after the month-long June school holidays but things have changed after three teachers were found to be infected with the virus over the weekend.

The two schools' closure comes on a day that the country clocked its largest number of new H1N1 cases in a day. A fresh 145 were confirmed yesterday, with another 77 cases pending confirmation.

Singapore has now 599 confirmed cases. In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Health said that 'though the number of infected cases has increased, the severity of the disease remains relatively mild'.

Three new clusters of the spread were also reported yesterday at the Clementi army camp, the Police Coast Guard base in Brani and an unspecified social party.

Hai Sing decided not to close because the sick teacher, a trainee, had come into close contact with only six other colleagues. These six have been asked to go on leave till Thursday. The Education Ministry (MOE) said precautionary measures will be taken at Hai Sing, including temperature taking twice a day.

At Westwood, the sick teacher was at a school camp at Pulau Ubin from June 22-June 26. He also attended a workshop and a staff seminar last Thursday and Friday. In all, 74 staff and 58 students from the school had come in close contact with the teacher, prompting the school to delay opening.

At Presbyterian High, the teacher affected also had several meetings in the school over the course of last week. She had come into close contact with 70 of her colleagues. With so many teachers affected, the school also opted to close.

The MOE said in a statement last night that all students from Westwood and Presbyterian High will be provided with home-based learning lessons this week. Staff who were not in close contact with the infected teachers will return to the schools to help coordinate the operations for home-learning.

The schools will deliver materials for home-based learning to their students and monitor their progress via phone, e-mail and the schools' learning management systems. Parents will also be informed of activities and study schedules. Teachers will give make-up lessons when students return.

Students taking their O-level Mother-Tongue oral examinations on Thursday and Friday will be able to take them at a later date, through arrangements with the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board.

Another school, Republic Polytechnic, is the country's biggest cluster of cases - 49 people there have fallen ill. Its first-year students have been told to stay away from its Woodlands campus and are on home-based learning as well.

Meanwhile, responding to a H1N1 cluster at the Police Coast Guard base in Brani, a police spokesman said continuity plans are in place to ensure key functions will not be compromised.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.