The swine flu pandemic is eating away the Halifax Regional School Board's budget for substitute teachers.

Between 450 and 500 teachers are absent every week, up from an average of 200-250 before the H1N1 outbreak picked up this fall, the board said Thursday.

"We've seen it for the last few weeks where on a daily basis, we're having almost double the amount of substitutes we would normally have in what we were seeing in September and October," board spokesman Doug Hadley said.

The board has a budget of $11.5 million this year to bring in substitute teachers, but that figure was finalized well before the second wave of H1N1 struck.

Hadley said the board may have to ask the province for emergency funding to cover skyrocketing flu-related costs.

"It's too early to say where it will end up, but if we're seeing it on an ongoing basis for four to six months, it will probably be quite a bit over of what we projected," he said.

Like many school boards in the province, the Halifax Regional School Board is seeing high absentee rates among students, too. In some cases, attendance has dwindled to only a handful of children in a class.

The number of confirmed H1N1 cases in Nova Scotia continues to rise.

In an update Thursday, public health officials said 37 people were hospitalized last week, including nine in intensive care. Nearly one in four people showing up at emergency rooms across the province have flu symptoms. At the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, it's more than 50 per cent.

Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief public health officer, said there's no sign the outbreak will ease anytime soon.

"I think we're still on the upward slope," Strang told reporters. "Essentially, we're going to see this … second wave at least a number of weeks more."