Mexico businesses prepare to reopen
Mexico's health secretary has said most businesses will reopen nationwide this week following an an ebb in the swine flu outbreak.
Health Secretary Jose Cordova said most economic activity will resume on Wednesday, ending a five-day closure of non-essential businesses to stop the spread of the new virus.
Mr Cordova said Mexico has confirmed 727 cases, including 26 deaths.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said cafes, museums and libraries will reopen this week but that health officials need to finish inspecting schools before students can return to class.
Meanwhile, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman said the agency may raise its pandemic level to its highest alert, signifying a swine flu pandemic.
WHO uses a six-level scale to assess the world's risk and raised the level to 5 last Wednesday. Level 6 would mean a global outbreak of swine flu was under way.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, WHO chief Margaret Chan implied the agency might raise its alert to level 6. She played down the impact of going to level 6, saying she was concerned about causing unnecessary panic. WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said he could not immediately verify the translation of Ms Chan's comments in Spanish, but that they appeared to be consistent with what the global health body has said all along.
He said: "We have consistently said a pandemic is imminent. It's only a matter of time before we move to phase 6 unless the virus suddenly becomes weaker and dies off."
More than 1,000 people have now been affected worldwide. According to tallies by the World Health Organisation, CDC and governments, there were 226 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States, including one fatality, 101 in Canada, 54 in Spain and 27 in Britain.
There were also eight in Germany, six in New Zealand, four each in Italy and France, three in Israel, as well as one each in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, Irish Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia and Portugal
