With China, Hong Kong, and Denmark confirming the outbreak of the swine flu strain Friday, the number of countries infected by the H1N1 virus rose to 15 over five continents so far.
According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) figures, a total of 331 persons across North America, Europe and Australia-New Zealand have been afflicted by the killer virus so far.
This is in addition to the hundreds of more suspected cases in the U.S., Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
The regions hardest hit are in the western hemisphere, said a WHO spokesman.
"We have not seen sustained human-to-human transmission anywhere outside the Americas region," he added.
National health agencies and the WHO differ on the death toll.
While WHO attributed 9 deaths to the virus in Mexico, the worst hit by the killer disease, that country's officials said the figure rose to 12.
They are investigating to confirm if the virus caused more than 150 deaths in Mexico.
Mexican health minister Jose Cordova said the number of H1N1 flu cases confirmed by laboratory tests increased to 312, and that deaths from the virus would probably rise.
Mexico began a five-day shutdown Friday of public places to contain the spread of the disease.
Only essential government services would function during the safety period.
Cinemas and restaurants were closed down; May Day rallies were canceled.
Most restaurants, cinemas and bars were closed, and public events canceled in capital Mexico City since last week-end.
The United States had 109 confirmed cases and one death, said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
U.S. health authorities are shipping anti-flu medication, masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits for 9 of its 11 states with confirmed cases, said Richard Besser, acting head of the CDC.
The White House said 20 states had probable or confirmed cases.
President Barack Obama appealed to the Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stocks, and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to prevent a full-blown pandemic.
Reports said more than 298 schools have been closed in the country, affecting the studies of about 172,000 students.
The U.S. government announced on Friday that it will buy 13 million new courses of antiviral treatment and send 400,000 of them to Mexico.
The latest figures regarding other countries hit by swine flu are thus:
New Zealand: 4 confirmed, 12 probable cases; Canada: 34 confirmed cases; Britain: 8 confirmed cases; Spain: 13 confirmed cases; Germany: 4 confirmed cases; Israel, Costa Rica: 2 confirmed cases each; the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, China: 1 confirmed case each.
The first person-to-person transmission in Germany has been reported, as authorities confirmed that a nurse who treated a patient with swine flu also contracted the disease.
The WHO raised its alert to level 5 Wednesday, indicating a further revision to level 6. A full phase six global pandemic would be declared if the organization's expert committee is convinced that the disease is spreading in different regions of the world.
The WHO appealed to countries to make final preparations to protect their citizens from the new virus, against which no natural immunity is reported to have developed.
The Geneva-based global health agency tried to alleviate panic over the consumption of pork in the wake of the flu outbreak, with Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security and environment, saying, flu infections in people were not related to exposure to pigs, and properly prepared pork was safe to eat.
Fukuda said that it was too early to conclude that the higher numbers of confirmed cases and deaths did not necessarily mean that incidence of the disease was increasing. The depth of the pandemic could be measured only after health investigators cleared the backlog of specimens, he added.
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April 24, 2026 15:15 ET Economics news flow was relatively light this week even as the conflict in the Middle East continued, raising concerns for policymakers. In the U.S., spending data, initial jobless claims and pending home sales were the highlights. Business confidence in the biggest euro area economy was in focus in Europe. Inflation data from Japan gained attention in Asia.