Hong Kong shuts schools in response to flu outbreak

Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong school children will be getting an early start to their Lunar New Year holiday as the city's education authorities ordered the closure of all kindergartens and primary schools to fight an outbreak of flu. The annual New Year holiday will start on February 8, rather than next week, "to minimize the spread of influenza," the Hong Kong Education Bureau said in a statement, urging schools to use the extra time to "clean and disinfect the whole school premises thoroughly."

Currently, flu is widespread across much of the world, including most of Europe, Asia and North America. Experts say the most prevalent strain is H3N2, also known as "Australian flu" after it emerged during that country's most recent flu season.

Schools have shut in parts of the US, where at least 37 children have died since October from flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Since the start of the year, more than 120 people have died as a result of the flu in Hong Kong, including two children, according to public broadcaster RTHK. An Education Bureau spokesman told CNN the last time schools closed in this manner was June 2009 during the swine flu pandemic.