Federal officials now recommend that schools stop closing when a case of swine flu is confirmed at a school, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday, according to CNN.
Scientists believe that the H1N1 virus epidemic is no more dangerous than seasonal flu, and schools should act accordingly, Sebelius said.
"This virus does not seem to be as severe as we once thought it would be," she said at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sick students should be kept home for seven days, she said, "but the schools should feel comfortable about opening."
Schools that have been closed can reopen, Sebelius said.
There were 702 probable and 403 confirmed cases in 44 states Tuesday, said Dr. Richard Besser, the CDC's acting director.
Sebelius' announcement came on a day when Texas health officials said a woman there became the second person in the United States to die from swine flu.
The woman, from Cameron County in south Texas, died this week, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. She had "chronic underlying health conditions," the department said.
The United States' first death from swine flu came last week: a toddler whose family was visiting Houston from Mexico.
Addressing the new guidance on school closings, Besser said that closing schools in a pandemic has a definite benefit. But closing during a general flu outbreak is not required, he said.
"When you get to situations that are approaching general flu, then the downside of closing schools outweighs the benefits," Besser said.
And federal officials have been hearing from local officials "how incredibly difficult and burdensome school closure is," he said.
He called the new guidance "a science-based decision that involves a lot of judgment."
The number of confirmed swine flu cases worldwide has increased to 1,490 in 23 countries, most of them in Mexico and the United States, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
That number includes 822 confirmed cases in Mexico, including 29 deaths, according to the WHO's Web site.
WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Keiji Fukuda said that 405 cases worldwide and four deaths in Mexico have been confirmed since Monday evening.
The increase reflects confirmations of previously reported infections as well as newly reported cases, Fukuda said.
The 403 confirmed U.S. cases are in 38 states, most of them in New York (90), Illinois (82), California (49) and Texas (42), the CDC said Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. Navy said it has canceled the deployment of one of its ships because of a number of possible cases of swine flu.
The USS Dubuque, an amphibious transport dock ship, was due to deploy June 1 to the South Pacific on a humanitarian mission, according to Cmdr. Joseph Surette, a Navy spokesman.
He said there was one confirmed case of H1N1 virus and 49 possible other cases among crew members over the past several days. The 50 crew members are off the ship recovering and being given Tamiflu medication, Surette said.
The ship is being scrubbed and disinfected, and the remaining 370 crew members are being given Tamiflu as a precaution, according to Surette.
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