First Swine Flu Death In New York City

The assistant principal of a Queens school who had been hospitalized with swine flu died on Sunday evening. It was the first death in New York State from the outbreak and came as city officials announced that five more Queens schools had been closed.

Mr. Wiener, the assistant principal of Intermediate School 238 in Hollis, one of the schools closed last week, had been on a ventilator and had slipped in and out of consciousness during his illness.

A hospital official says a school assistant principal has become the first New York City death linked to the swine flu virus.

Flushing Hospital Medical Center spokesman Andrew Rubin says Mitchell Wiener of Intermediate School 238 died Sunday evening. Wiener had been hospitalized and on a ventilator.

The city's first outbreak of swine flu occurred three weeks ago, when about 700 students and 300 other people associated with a Catholic high school in Queens began falling ill following the return of several students from vacations in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak.