Quarantined teacher 'speaks out'

A Cornish teacher who is quarantined in a Beijing hotel after one of the pupils he was chaperoning on a trip contracted swine flu has spoken of his experience.

Dave Bennett, a teacher at Penair School in Cornwall, is being held in the hotel along with another member of staff and 15 pupils from the school.

Their enforced stay at the hotel is as a result of one their party - a Year 10 female student - contracting the virus.

Mr Bennett said their stay was being made "as comfortable" as possible.

The teenager who contracted swine flu is being cared for in hospital.

She has mild symptoms, is being treated with anti-viral drugs in hospital and is said to be responding well.

She and her fellow students were part way through a two-week cultural exchange visit to China when she was diagnosed with the virus.

'Bit daunted'

Mr Bennett said: "The children are being extremely well looked after.

"They are a little bit daunted by the fact that we have two tests each day on our temperature, to see whether we have caught that, and I think everyone is slightly anxious at those times that they might not pass the test.

"But in every other respect the Chinese government have really made exceptional efforts to make our stay here as comfortable as they can."

Nine British school pupils have so far been diagnosed with swine flu in Beijing, according to Chinese health officials.

Nine US teenagers are also being treated in hospital after contracting the virus.

More than 80 British school pupils and teachers remain in quarantine in the Yanxiang Hotel, along with a number from the US.

However, the first batch of British school pupils who were quarantined in China have been released.

A total of 20 students and three teachers were allowed to leave Yanxiang Hotel after seven days of restrictions.

cnn.com

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