Australia said yesterday it was set to raise its swine flu alert level as the number of victims hit by the pandemic continued to mount, while Thailand urged calm after a sharp increase in cases.
Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon said that, with the national tally nearing 1,500 cases, the whole country would soon move to the “sustain” phase, in line with hot spot state Victoria.
The “sustain” phase, Australia’s second-highest, gives authorities the power to cancel sports events, close schools and restrict travel.
PHOTO: EPA
Government officials said, however, that extreme measures such as closing national borders were unlikely.
The WHO raised its global alert to a maximum level six on Thursday, saying swine flu had reached pandemic status because of its geographical spread.
Swine flu has so far infected almost 30,000 people in 74 countries and claimed 145 lives since it was first detected in Mexico in April, according to WHO figures released on Friday.
A total of 1,458 cases of the virus have been counted in Australia, the worst-hit Asia-Pacific country, with the fifth-highest number of cases worldwide.
“As the numbers gradually increase in jurisdictions there will be steps over the coming days to move to a consistent alert level,” Roxon said.
“It’s inevitable that the disease will spread. That’s the nature of this type of flu,” she said.
Meanwhile, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the country not to panic after swine flu cases suddenly soared and a cluster emerged in a key tourist hub.
Health authorities reported 106 confirmed cases of the virus late on Saturday — nearly seven times the tally just three days earlier.
Officials last week said 21 of the new infections were found among nightclub workers in the coastal city of Pattaya, who were tested after two Taiwanese tourists said on returning home they had contracted the disease there.
“People should not panic. The death ratio for the new flu is probably lower than normal flu,” Abhisit said in his weekly television program.
He said the government was taking extra measures whenever cases were reported to stop the spread of the disease.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
POINTING FINGERS: The two countries have accused each other of firing first, with Bangkok accusing Phnom Penh of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital Thai acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai yesterday warned that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people “could develop into war,” as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis yesterday. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported that one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and