Kounteya Sinha | TNN

New Delhi: The fear that students returning to school after summer vacations could expose others to the H1N1 influenza has become real. After Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, three more schools in the capital have been put on high alert with one of them shutting down a section of its Class VII for two days, after a student tested positive for the infection.

All the cases are from the group of 16 who had tested positive after returning from Singapore and Malaysia on July 8, as reported in TOI on Thursday.

While St Thomas had announced on Wednesday that Section VII E will remain closed on Thursday and Friday after a student tested positive for swine flu, Manav Sthali — with one of its students in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital — has distributed ‘stay alert’ leaflets among students. A close friend and neighbour of another infected girl, who complained of cough and fever, was isolated in RML Hospital.

Both are from Springdales, Pusa Road. No need to panic, says health dept

New Delhi: Ministry sources said in case the Springdales girl tests positive, the school would be asked to take similar steps like social distancing of students who came in contact with the infected girls.

Meanwhile, Anuradha Amos, principal of St Thomas School, told TOI: ‘‘The infected student had attended class on July 10 but she is now doing fine. As a precautionary measure, we have asked the other students in her class to stay at home. They will all return on Monday. In case anybody else develops symptoms, they have been asked to report to school authorities immediately. The teachers who taught the infected girl on July 10 have also been administered Tamiflu.’’

In Sardar Patel, too, over 30 students who had come in contact with the infected girl have been administered Tamiflu prophylactically. The school has asked all her classmates, teachers and students, who travelled with her in the school bus and came in contact with her, to stay at home for a week.

‘‘The girl’s father informed us that she has tested positive. Following this we had an emergency meeting with our medical panel, which suggested that as a precautionary measure we should ask all those who came in close contact with her to stay at home for a week,’’ said Anuradha Joshi, principal, SPV.

Delhi government’s health department reiterated that there was no need to panic. It claimed its screening teams had tracked all those who had come in contact with the girl. ‘‘We have quarantined one of her close school friends at RML Hospital and her sample has been sent for testing to National Institute of Communicable Diseases This just one case in the school and there is no need to panic,’’ said Kiran Walia, Delhi’s