Mitchell Wiener, 55, a school assistant principal who was sick for several days with swine flu became the New York City's first death linked to the virus and the nation's sixth.
Mitchell Wiener, who worked at Susan B. Anthony Intermediate School in Queens, died Sunday evening, Flushing Hospital Medical Center spokesman Andrew Rubin said. Wiener had been hospitalized and on a ventilator, sick with the virus for nearly a week before his school was closed on Thursday.
As has been the case with other swine flu deaths in the United States, complications besides the virus likely played a part in his death, Rubin said.
Perhaps in response to Mitchell Wiener's death, five more NYC schools are to close Monday because of concern for swine flu, bringing the total to 11.
Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said in a statement:
"We are now seeing a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City. With the virus spreading widely, closing these and other individual schools will make little difference in transmission throughout New York City, but we hope it will help slow transmission within the individual school communities."
On Friday, Frieden had been named as the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He'll begin working at the CDC in June. Frieden will face numerous questions about the swine flu outbreak, including whether to produce a vaccine.
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