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.
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