The Hawke's Bay District Health Board supports new regulations giving them powers to order people into quarantine to combat swine flu.
The Government today added the virus to the Health (Infectious and Notifiable Diseases) Regulations.
Hawke's Bay DHB medical officer of health, Caroline McElnay, said it was good to have those powers if they were needed.
Health Minister Tony Ryall said the regulation meant ill students or teachers could be forced to stay away from school. So far, in Australia (where the swine flu tally has passed 1200), Japan and the United States, the virus has spread most virulently in schools.
People had been co-operative so far, but health officials said the new powers would give more authority to their public requests, Mr Ryall said.
The new powers were just a precautionary step and "a back-up to difficult cases".
Overseas experience showed emergency departments and GP clinics were being overwhelmed with people showing up with symptoms.
"Anything we can do to delay that from happening in our schools and communities means that we can keep the rest of our health services available to those in need."
In the case of a outbreak, community-based assessment centres would draw people away from hospitals and GPs, he said.
There are 17 confirmed swine flu cases in New Zealand.
A Canterbury man on Sunday became the South Island's first confirmed case after returning from Los Angeles on May 31.
His 7-year-old son yesterday tested positive for the virus, as did a second passenger from the same flight. The third case was a person who arrived from Melbourne on June 5.
There were also 103 suspected cases, up from 92 the previous day, with 10 deemed "probable".
Mr Ryall said the medical officers' new powers did not extend to the closure of schools, which could only be invoked by the Minister of Health.
Health Ministry director of public health, Mark Jacobs, said community transmission in New Zealand was inevitable.
"The recent rapid increase in cases ... emphasises that community transmission in New Zealand is a matter of when, rather than if."
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