Mexico City on Thursday lifted all swine flu restrictions imposed on the sprawling metropolis, as global health authorities puzzled over the origins and severity of the A(H1N1) virus.
“We can calm down now,” Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard told a news conference, just weeks after the city was virtually shut down.
Mexico City was at the epicenter of the outbreak of swine flu, which has now spread to 41 countries, infecting more than 11,000 people and leading to 85 deaths, the WHO said.
The capital’s Web site dropped its five-level alert to the lowest level “green” on Thursday, signaling that schools, businesses and transport could function as normal, without extra health precautions.
The A(H1N1) virus has killed 78 people in Mexico and infected 3,930, the latest health ministry figures on Thursday showed.
Even though the virus has now spread far overseas, WHO officials have so far resisted calling the outbreak a pandemic, remaining at level five, which warns of an “imminent pandemic.”
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍), who first raised concerns about the dangers of the new multi-strain virus last month, has stopped short of declaring an all-out pandemic by moving to phase six.
MILD
During a meeting at the WHO’s annual assembly on Thursday, Chan listed the apparent mildness of the symptoms so far seen in swine flu patients as among the criteria that were prompting a cautious approach.
“One of the things we’re not seeing is the same spread in the southern hemisphere that we’ve seen in the first three countries,” a WHO official said.
There are concerns that the start of winter in the southern hemisphere, which includes much of South America, could enable the virus to mutate into a stronger, more virulent strain.
And new infections are still being reported, as the Philippines became the latest country on Thursday to confirm its first case of the disease.
In the Philippines, a 10-year-old girl who flew in from the US was diagnosed with swine flu, while Taiwan also confirmed its third case.
The number of new cases of the swine flu virus also soared in Japan and Canada.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso appealed for calm as the number of cases reportedly reached 292, including the third infection in greater Tokyo, the world’s largest urban area.
CALM
In a government TV advertisement, a female voice says “we do not have to fear this influenza if we receive early treatment.”
Aso then faces the camera and says: “I ask for your calm response.”
In Canada, authorities said the number of swine flu cases had soared by more than 200 since the end of last week.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
RSS