A primary school in west Wales has closed for three days after a "high number" of pupils and half the staff were taken ill with flu-like symptoms.

A number of cases at Pontyberem Primary School in Carmarthenshire were confirmed as being swine flu on Tuesday afternoon. The head decided to close the 120-pupil school due to staff shortages. The closure comes as the first swine flu vaccinations take place in Wales, with 750,000 seen as priority cases.

Health workers and patients with chronic illnesses like lung and heart disease will be the first to receive the swine flu vaccine. Pregnant women will also receive letters offering vaccination, an offer which will eventually be extended to everyone in Wales.

Around 750,000 people in Wales have been identified as the most at risk of complications from the virus. The number of people in Wales suffering from flu-like symptoms continues to rise with nearly 2,000 people contacting their doctors in the last seven days.

At the Welsh Assembly Government the vaccination programme is going to take several weeks to roll out. This is not one big vaccination programme. It may take right up until December to complete.