MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials lowered their swine flu alert level in the capital on Monday and said they will allow universities, cafes, museums and libraries to reopen this week, even as the number of confirmed cases topped 1,200 worldwide.
Mexican officials declared the epidemic to be waning at its epicenter, announcing that Wednesday will conclude a five-day closure of nonessential businesses they credit for reducing the spread of the new virus.
President Felipe Calderon said that higher education classes would resume Thursday and all other schools and government-run day care centers would reopen by May 11.
Global health officials urged countries to remain vigilant because the outbreak's spread around the world remains in its early stages, but there were no imminent plans to raise the pandemic alert level.
Raising the alert level to 6, the highest, would mean that a global outbreak of swine flu is under way. The World Health Organization uses the term pandemic to refer to geographic spread rather than severity. Pandemics aren't necessarily deadly. The past two pandemics — in 1957 and 1968 — were relatively mild.
"We do not know how long we will have until we move to Phase 6," said Margaret Chan, head of the WHO. "We are not there yet. The criteria will be met when we see in another region outside North America, showing very clear evidence of community-level transmission."
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