On May 27, 2009, the swine flu was found to hit a third person in Shiga, a 36-year-old male company worker who works in Kyoto and lives in Otsu. He has a wife and child who so far shows no signs of the flu.

Shiga is no longer taking drastic precautions against the swine flu, as the spread seems to have subsided and flu patients have been recovering well. Much fewer people are also wearing surgical masks on trains, etc. The period of panic and paranoia is passing.

Schools in Shiga reopened on May 27 as scheduled.

Meanwhile, hotels, ryokan inns, and other tourism-related businesses in Shiga and Kyoto have been hit hard by numerous school trip cancellations. As of May 23, about 63,000 visitors canceled trips to Shiga. This translates to a loss of about 1.2 billion yen (1,200,000,000) in business. Businesses are seeking financial help from the prefectural government.