Antananarivo, Muharram 18, 1439, Oct 8, 2017, SPA -- Schools in several cities across Madagascar will stay closed this week due to an outbreak of the plague, with the death toll rising to 42, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. According to dpa, the government has already prohibited crowds from gathering in order to curb the further spread of the dangerous disease that had sickened 343 people as of Sunday, according to Health Ministry figures. On Friday, the ministry put the death toll at 36, with 250 sickened. In the heavily populated capital, Antananarivo, 142 people have been infected, the Healthy Ministry said. Schools in the affected cities of Antananarivo, Toamasina and other regions are closed for a week. Outbreaks of bubonic plague are common in Madagascar, which lies off Africa's south-eastern coast, but the most recent outbreak has included cases of the more serious pneumonic form of plague. --SPA 18:07 LOCAL TIME 15:07 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w507329