Despite the 201 confirmed cases of the virus in New York City, most have been mild and there has been only one confirmed death from the virus, that of a 55-year-old educator. The funeral for Mitchell Wiener, an assistant principal at I.S. 238 in Hollis, Queens, who died of complications from swine flu on Sunday, was held this afternoon in Flushing.

I.S. 238 is the only school in the city where students  four of them  have confirmed cases of the new strain of virus. The criteria for closing a school because of concerns about swine flu has become a point of contention with educators and parents, and one that the city has yet to spell out.

“I know people would like there to be a perfect formula where you can push a button and decide,” Dt. Thomas R. Frieden, the departing city health commissioner, said at an afternoon news conference. “It has to do with how many kids are sick, for how long they’ve been sick, what proportion of the school that represents, how that’s changed from day to day. We’ve seen different patterns.”

The United Federation of Teachers has been monitoring absentism in the schools because of the flulike symptoms and said it planned to hold a news conference on Thursday to discuss its findings.

The effect of the increased school closings has become evident in the crowded hospital waiting rooms over the past few days, said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “While there are abnormal number of people going to the hospital, who are worried, virtually none, a very tiny percentage of them have any symptoms whatsoever,” Mr. Bloomberg said.