Singapore may reopen schools as disease fears ease

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Singapore nurseries and kindergartens may reopen next week as fears of an epidemic of hand, foot and mouth disease, suspected in the deaths of four children, subside, officials said on Tuesday.

"If the encouraging trend continues, all childcare centers, kindergartens...will reopen on Monday," a joint ministerial statement said.

Staff at childcare centers have been advised how to prepare for reopening, and most have sterilized the toys and furniture ahead of the children's return.

The government closed all kindergartens and childcare centers last week. It also directed fast-food restaurants to shut children's play areas and closed public and private wading pools.

About 140,000 children have been affected by the closure.

The government said it would take another two days to review health conditions, before deciding when schools would re-open.

"Any premature opening of the schools would only render all the effort we have put in until now fruitless, but more importantly, what if more lives were to be lost?" said acting Environment Minister Lim Swee Say.

Some 1,150 cases believed linked to the disease have been reported since October 1. On Tuesday, nine children remained in hospital but all were in stable condition.

One strain of the disease, enterovirus 71, can be lethal. It killed more than 70 children in Taiwan in 1998 and several in Malaysia in 1997.

Wang Nan Chee, Singapore's Commissioner for Public Health and head of the disease task force, said efforts to avert a larger outbreak appeared to be working.

"In Singapore's context, I think we managed to hold it quite well until now and... the situation is not as severe as outbreaks two years or three years ago," he said.

But the closures have left children fidgeting restlessly at home and many working couples have struggled to cobble together temporary arrangements.

Grandparents have been pressed in to help. Some childcare centers have offered staff as nannies. Recreation areas that usually buzz at weekends have been silent.

S.B. Wong, 47, a mother of three, said, "I have three children to tend to without a maid. I find it very taxing."

Some parents and letter writers to local newspapers called the government move alarmist.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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