NEW YORK — "Many hundreds" of students at a Queens parochial school are sick with suspected swine flu, the city's health commissioner said today, and a dozen more students at a public school for autistic children in Queens also may have the virus.

A 2-year-old boy in the Bronx and a Brooklyn woman have also been hospitalized with the suspected virus, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

School staff at PS 177 in the Fresh Meadows section of Queens handed out fliers this afternoon notifying parents that the school was closed until further notice.

City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said the school's cases are not confirmed as swine flu but the students have the same symptoms as the confirmed cases.

Nationwide, the number of confirmed swine flu cases has increased to 64 — 45 of them in New York City. At least seven people are hospitalized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

A cluster of 28 cases has been confirmed at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, which remained closed today.

"We know that many hundreds of students were ill with symptoms, which look like they were swine flu," Frieden said.

Frieden said later: "It's not unusual to see it spreading widely in a closed population like that."

At St. Francis, 17 cases there that were identified this morning as "probable" were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for further testing, the city's Health Department said.

PS 177, which has about 400 students, is less than half a mile from St. Francis.

The city said there are siblings who attend PS 177 and nearby St. Francis. Twelve children at PS 177 have a fever.

Parents said the school told them that several students were reportedly ill with flulike symptoms and warned of a "possible outbreak of swine flu" at the school.

Dalle Holloway, a parent from Queens, arrived at PS 177, also called The Robin Sue Ward School For Exceptional Children, shortly after 1 p.m. to pick up her son.

"The school called all parents saying that there may be a possible outbreak of swine flu," Holloway said. "I'm scared but thank God my son is fine."

Bloomberg said that five new probable swine flu cases have emerged in the city.

New York City began collecting medical samples at PS 177 after reports of flulike symptoms and "more than usual absenteeism," a spokesman for the mayor's office said today.

The city Health Department sent out a medical team to PS 177 to determine whether any of the students, staff or faculty have been exposed to the strain of swine flu.

Several students are reportedly ill, said Lucia Campos, 18, who came to PS 177 to pick up her sister.

Teachers inside the building are wearing face masks, Campos said. School officials told her to keep her sister at home until yesterday, Campos added.

An ambulance from Flushing Hospital Medical Center was parked outside the school this afternoon, and emergency responders were seen wearing face masks.