NEW YORK — The swine flu virus continues spreading in New York City — closing more schools and showing up in a jail — while the disease also reached farther into Asia among travelers returning from the United States.
An assistant school principal in New York remained hospitalized in critical condition Saturday, and an inmate who entered the city’s jail complex on Rikers Island about a month ago was diagnosed with swine flu Friday.
The city Department of Correction said that the flu hadn’t spread to other prisoners in the 13,200-inmate system.
The Rikers Island inmate — whose name or reason for being in custody wasn’t released — was improving since his hospitalization last Wednesday and wasn’t in serious condition, said Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello.
The jail canceled weekend visits for about 70 inmates that he had come in contact with, and advised any other inmates’ family members who were feeling ill not to come, he said. Surgical masks were passed out to those inmates and officers at two housing units.
The assistant principal in New York, Mitchell Wiener, worked at one of six schools that have been closed for a week because of the latest rash of suspected swine flu cases.
Wiener’s wife, Bonnie, told reporters he had been feverish and sick for nearly a week before his intermediate school was shut down.
Latest developments
•The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say more than 4,700 confirmed and probable cases have been reported in 46 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia. Five people have died in the U.S., all with underlying ailments.
•Malaysia, India and Turkey have reported their first cases, all involving people who had traveled from the United States. They are in addition to the 36 other countries where the World Health Organization says more than 8,000 cases have been confirmed.
•Mexico said tests have confirmed two more deaths from swine flu, bringing the nation’s toll to 68. Cases now total 3,102.
•Japan on Saturday confirmed its first case of swine flu caught within the country, its fifth overall, showing that the effort to block the flu at the island nation’s borders had failed.
