'Closing down of the school is a hasty decision on the part of the school authorities,' he said.

Since children between the ages of 10 and 14 years are more vulnerable to the influenza virus, a close watch is being kept over an estimated one crore school children across 46,000 schools in the state, the health secretary said.

'We've started the checking children of swine flu virus since Aug 1,' said Perumal.

He added that the central government would supply 100,000 Tamiflu tablets to the state soon.

'Already 10,000 Tamiflu tablets have been distributed in government designated hospitals,' he said.

According to the figures available with the Karnataka health department, the state has recorded 74 confirmed cases of H1N1 virus. Of these, five are from coastal city Mangalore and rest in Bangalore.