Barbara Ferrer: Boston public-health director.The city Public Health Commission is attempting to convince local businesses to not penalize workers who stay home for seven days either because they have the flu or they have to care for kids with it.

Barbara Ferrer, commission director, said seven days is the period required to ensure people are no longer infectious. "We really have asked the business community to help us with this," she said at a city-council hearing this morning called by Councilor Chuck Turner.

Also, she said, businesses need to trust their workers that they or their kids were sick, rather than forcing them to get notes from their doctors - because the medical system would be "doubled up" filling out all those notes.

The Boston Public Health Commission announced today it's shutting the Russell Elementary School in Dorchester, the Sumner in Roslindale and the Tobin in Roxbury due to high absenteeism that could be linked to swine flu.

All three schools will be shut effective tomorrow through Thursday, June 18.

That makes 17 public and private schools in Boston shut for a week due to H1N1. The Russell is on the same block as a Catholic school that was ordered shut yesterday, according to the Dorchester Reporter.

At the Russell, 81 of 370 students were out sick today; at the Sumner, 159 out of 501 and at the Tobin, 113 out of 428. All three schools also reported heavy absence rates among employees and "a significant number" of students who left school during the day with flu-like symptoms.

The Boston Public Health Commission announced today it's shutting the Blackstone Elementary School in the South End for a week because of high absence rates. Some 114 of the school's 600 students were out today - in addition to a number of stafff members.

The Blackstone is the 13th school in Boston shut for a week due to high absence rates linked to swine flu.

The Boston Public Health Commission just tweeted that it's shutting the Jackson-Mann School and the Horace Mann School in Allston and the John Eliot School in the North End for seven days each because of swinish outbreaks.

That brings the number of schools in Boston felled by H1N1 to 11.

Unfortunately, it might be caused by swine flu. Evan, who works in a local medical research facility, reports:

... I broke out in a full body sweat and then became extremely shaky. That's when I started to panic, asked 3 infectious disease doctors in my lab if there was a possibility that I have a mild case of H1N1 (it appears to be a mild strain locally)...they all said absolutely possible, that tons of cases came through the hospital over the weekend...so many that they no longer require testing for it. One of them told me flatly to go home and stay there until I felt better...I couldn't do that since I was in the middle of an experiment.

So I made it home at 7PM and had another fever spike...I took my temp and it was hovering at 101. Ughh. The funny thing is that I don't really feel all that bad, but I am hacking up my lungs and the headaches suck, too. ...

The Boston Public Health Commission just announced it's shutting the British School of Boston on Pond Street for a week starting tomorrow.

The commission says it took the action after learning that 160 of the school's roughly 300 students were abasent. The school provides British-style education for students from nursery school to high school.

The Dorchester Reporter reports that the Frederick Middle School on Columbia Road in Dorchester was also ordered closed.

Schools are dropping like flies around here - among the latest: The Umana in East Boston, to shut for a week starting tomorrow.

In addition to shutting Boston Latin School, the Boston Public Health Commission says it is also closing the Winsor School, a private girls school on Pilgrim Road, for seven days starting tomorrow.

As at Latin, the cause is "unusually high levels of influenza-like illness in recent days." The commission says 34 students - out of 430 - were out sick today.

Boston Public Health Commission statement on Boston Latin and the Winsor School.

Ed. question: Given that the two schools are right in the Longwood Medical Area, are we soon going to hear about a hospital suffering an outbreak?