MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government on Tuesday announced a $1.31 billion package of temporary tax breaks with the aim of counteracting the negative effects the outbreak of swine flu has had on the country’s economic activity.

Finance Secretary Agustin Carstens said that the health crisis will have an impact of between 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent of gross domestic product, resulting in losses of some 30 billion pesos ($2.27 billion).

Mexico has confirmed 802 cases of infection with the AH1N1 virus and 26 people have died from the illness. The outbreak all but paralyzed the country, but a gradual resumption of normal activities is set to begin Wednesday.

“The total fiscal boost of the federal government associated with the planned measures totals 17.4 billion pesos, to which must be added the support by the state governments of 1.4 billion pesos,” should Mexico’s 31 states back some of the measures, Carstens told a press conference.

“Similar experiences that other countries have gone through show an abrupt deceleration of economic activity during the episode, which is followed by a vigorous recovery in the subsequent months,” he said.

The tax breaks announced Tuesday are intended to favor the sectors most affected by the situation Mexico has experienced since the health alert was announced on April 23.

Those sectors include especially entertainment centers and restaurants, which closed to avoid the gathering of people and new outbreaks of the flu, and the tourism sector, which has experienced a substantial cancellation in reservations and a massive outflow of foreign tourists who refused to remain in the country during the epidemic.

Among the measures to be put in place is a 20 percent discount in social security taxes paid by firms to fund health insurance, workers compensation, disability payments and other benefits.

To have greater liquidity, firms that can expect to receive a refund on their income taxes will be permitted to reduce their monthly payments accordingly.

In the aviation sector, airlines will be authorized to receive a 50 percent discount on their payments for the rights to navigation services in Mexican air space between April and June.

Cruise ships that arrive at Mexican beach resorts will receive a 50 percent discount on port payments.

In addition, a fund will be created for tourism promotion.

Mexican Education Secretary Alonso Lujambio said Tuesday that the “preventive measures” of cleaning and other maintenance work in the school will allow a “safe and healthy” return to classrooms for 33 million students starting on Thursday.

“I think that the staggering and gradualness allow us, obviously, along with the evidence that has been systematically announced by the Health Ministry, to return (to normal activities) under conditions of safety,” Lujambio said, referring to the fact that not all students will return to classes at the same time.

In an interview with the television news program “Primero Noticias,” the minister said that the return to normalcy scheduled for May 7-11 had been carefully planned and organized.

Lujambio said that parents and the educational community in general are going to play “a very important role” in the work to safeguard the public.

In the schools, principals will be given instruction so that they know where the closest hospitals are and so that they can prepare simple questions to ask students that will allow the early detection of flu symptoms.

Parents, Lujambio said, must also do their part by keeping their children home if they show flu symptoms.

When asked whether it may be too soon to guarantee that students can safely return to the schools, Lujambio rejected the notion that it was dangerous given that neither the transmission rate nor the mortality rate of the new flu strain is very high.

He added that the country’s medical facilities also have enough medicine to deal with anyone who falls ill and said that “all indicators” linked to the disease are moving “down.” EFE