NY schools offer flu vaccinations
The US's largest school district has said it will offer free swine flu vaccinations to its one million-plus schoolchildren as New York City takes bold steps to avoid becoming the country's flu epicentre.
Hundreds of school districts across the US have agreed to allow vaccinations in school buildings once the vaccine becomes available in October as Americans prepare for a spike in swine flu cases.
New York officials said the vaccine - also available to private school children - would mostly be given to children through a "mist" in the nose rather than by injection.
The virus was first detected in the US this spring among students at a private high school in Queens.
Officials estimate as many as one million people were affected in the city, and more than 50 people died.
Across the US swine flu has killed about 500 people.
President Barack Obama said that while the swine flu vaccine will be voluntary, the government will "strongly recommend" that people get it.
"I don't want anybody to be alarmed, but I do want everyone to be prepared," the president said of the second, more serious wave of the virus expected this autumn.
A White House report suggests up to half the US population could be infected.
"We know New Yorkers are concerned, very understandably, about the risks that they might face," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "Our job is to plan in case it is a big deal."