VICTORIA should immediately close every school for a week to slow the progress of the virus, a federal government influenza adviser has warned.
Professor Raina MacIntyre said it had passed the point where the spread of swine flu can be prevented and
There were last night 209 confirmed cases of swine flu nationally, with 138 cases in Victoria.
Tasmania also reported its first case.
Although seven Victorian schools have been closed in steps to contain the virus and a further 27 identified as "affected", governments and health authorities insist the scale of the outbreak does not warrant wholesale school closures or cancellations of major public events.
But Professor MacIntyre, an infections diseases expert and a member of Australia's Pandemic Influenza Advisory Group, said the time had come to consider more drastic steps.
"We're at the stage now in Victoria where a blanket closure of all schools and pre-schools should be on the agenda and a decision needs to be made quickly," Professor MacIntyre told The Weekend Australian.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon conceded yesterday that the focus of Australia's pandemic response would invariably shift from trying to contain the virus to treating it.
She said there were communities in Victoria that had already moved to the next phase in the pandemic plan.
In Japan, authorities closed more than 1000 schools in the cities of Kobe and Osaka - where most of its swine flu infections were centred - and cancelled major public events to stop the spread of the virus.
In Britain, one confirmed case of a 13-year-old student at Eton College, the alma mater of princes William and Harry, has prompted the closure for a week of the country's most exclusive school.
Seven dedicated swine flu clinics are now in operation across Victoria to help emergency departments cope with an influx of people concerned they may have contracted the H1N1 virus.
Of the 39 new cases of swine flu confirmed in Victoria last night, 26 people were of school age. Across the nation, there were last night 48 cases of swine flu in NSW, 11 in Queensland, seven in South Australia, three in the ACT and one each in Western Australia and Tasmania.
