Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan has asked 41,000 schools nationwide to set up steering boards on A/H1N1 flu prevention.

If any education and training facility, including schools, universities and colleges, does not establish a steering board against the flu, it will not be allowed to start the new school year, the Deputy PM said on July 24.

The most essential thing that schools should do for over 20 million students as well as teachers is to provide them with preventive measures, he stressed.

If a school experiences an outbreak, they and the local health authorities must announce a school closing time, he said.

All schools should be prepared to coordinate with the health sector in setting up field hospitals, he added.

On the same day, 33 more A/H1N1 cases were reported by the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environment, a unit under the Health Ministry.

Among the new cases, 13 were related to outbreaks at Nguyen Khuyen Boarding- School in Tan Binh district, and Ngo Thoi Nhiem Private School in District No. 9, Ho Chi Minh City , the department said.

As of 17:00 on July 24, a total of 532 cases of the flu have been confirmed in Vietnam./.