China's Ministry of Education has required summer camps and other student activities to be cancelled this summer holiday to prevent further spread of the A/H1N1 flu, Tuesday's China Daily reported.

Student activities, including summer camps, should be held "only when necessary," ministry officials were quoted as saying.

In areas with multiple cases of the virus, the local education authority will downgrade the amount and scale of such activities, the ministry's notice said.

In major A/H1N1 flu areas, such activities should be cancelled, it said.

The released notice follows outbreaks among more than 120 students, parents and teachers at several summer camps in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Local education authorities are asking activity organizers to establish flu prevention plans, and organizers will be held responsible if their negligence results in an outbreak, the notice read.

Organizations that hold large-scale activities, like summer camps or teenage military training camps, will be required to submit their activity schedule to local education authorities.

The organizers of activities are also required to have medical staffs conduct physical examinations of students every day.

If someone becomes sick with flu-like symptoms, the organizers should deal with it appropriately and immediately report the case to the local authority of disease prevention and control. If necessary, the organizers should cancel the activities to prevent the virus spreading.

Several outbreaks have been reported recently. Seven primary and middle school students at a camp organized by the China Juvenile and Children's Publishing House were confirmed infected with the virus. Some other 77 students from this camp, mainly between 8 to 16 years old, are still under medical observation.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2009)