As a news conference in Washington , Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the emergency declaration “standard operating procedure,” and said she would rather call it a “declaration of emergency preparedness.”
“It’s like declaring one for a hurricane,” she said. “It means we can release funds and take other measures. The hurricane may not actually hit.”
American investigators said they expected more cases here, but noted that virtually all so far had been mild and urged Americans not to panic.
The speed and the scope of the world’s response showed the value of preparations made because of the avian flu and SARS scares, public health experts said.
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The emergency declaration in the United States lets the government free more money for antiviral drugs and give some previously unapproved tests and drugs to children. One-quarter of the national stockpile of 50 million courses of antiflu drugs will be released.
Border patrols and airport security officers are to begin asking travelers if they have had the flu or a fever ; those who appear ill will be stopped, taken aside and given masks while they arrange for medical care.
“This is moving fast and we expect to see more cases,” Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , said at the news conference with Ms. Napolitano. “But we view this as a marathon.”
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He advised Americans to wash their hands frequently, to cover coughs and sneezes and to stay home if they felt ill; but he stopped short of advice now given in Mexico to wear masks and not kiss or touch anyone. He praised decisions to close individual schools in New York and Texas but did not call for more widespread closings.
Besides the eight New York cases, officials said they had confirmed seven in California , two in Kansas , two in Texas and one in Ohio . The virus looked identical to the one in Mexico believed to have killed 103 people — including 22 people whose deaths were confirmed to be from swine flu — and sickened about 1,600. As of Sunday night, there were no swine flu deaths in the United States, and one hospitalization.
Other governments tried to contain the infection amid reports of potential new cases including in New Zealand and Spain .
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Dr. Fukuda of the W.H.O. said his agency would decide Tuesday whether to raise the pandemic alert level to 4. Such a move would prompt more travel bans, and the agency has been reluctant historically to take actions that hurt member nations.
Canada confirmed six cases, at opposite ends of the country: four in Nova Scotia and two in British Columbia . Canadian health officials said the victims had only mild symptoms and had either recently traveled to Mexico or been in contact with someone who had.
Other governments issued advisories urging citizens not to visit Mexico. China , Japan , Hong Kong and others set up quarantines for anyone possibly infected. Russia and other countries banned pork imports from Mexico, though people cannot get the flu from eating pork.
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In the United States, the C.D.C. confirmed that eight students at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, Queens , had been infected with the new swine flu. At a news conference on Sunday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that all those cases had been mild and that city hospitals had not seen a surge in severe lung infections.
On the streets of New York, people seemed relatively unconcerned, in sharp contrast to Mexico City , where soldiers handed out masks.
Hong Kong, shaped by lasting scars as an epicenter of the SARS outbreak, announced very tough measures. Officials there urged travelers to avoid Mexico and ordered the immediate detention of anyone arriving with a fever higher than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit after traveling through any city with a confirmed case, which would include New York.
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Everyone stopped will be sent to a hospital for a flu test and held until it is negative. Since Hong Kong has Asia ’s busiest airport hub, the policy could severely disrupt international travel.
The central question is how many mild cases Mexico has had, Dr. Martin S. Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine for the Centers for Disease Control, said in an interview.
“We may just be looking at the tip of the iceberg, which would give you a skewed initial estimate of the case fatality rate,” he said, meaning that there might have been tens of thousands of mild infections around the 1,300 cases of serious disease and 80 or more deaths. If that is true, as the flu spreads, it would not be surprising if most cases were mild.
Even in 1918, according to the C.D.C., the virus infected at least 500 million of the world’s 1.5 billion people to kill 50 million. Many would have been saved if antiflu drugs, antibiotics and mechanical ventilators had existed.
Another hypothesis, Dr. Cetron said, is that some other factor in Mexico increased lethality, like co-infection with another microbe or an unwittingly dangerous treatment.
Flu experts would also like to know whether current flu shots give any protection because it will be months before a new vaccine can be made.
3D Model of an influenza virus Officials in Mexico are asking citizens to take actions in order to minimize the spread of the swine flu outbreak. Citizens are urged to stay away from large crowds, avoid kissing people and stay at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from one another. Additionally, all schools and universities in Mexico City have been closed indefinitely. In addition, at least twenty people in the United States have been infected with the disease, causing the government to issue a "national public health emergency."

On Monday, Mexican officials reported that at least 100 deaths in their country were "likely linked" to the swine flu. Dr. Jose A. Cordova Villalobos, the health secretary of Mexico, said that at least 20 of the deaths have been confirmed as swine flu related deaths while the World Health Organization (WHO) says that 71 people have died from complications caused by the disease. Meanwhile, over 1,300 people in Mexico have been hospitalized because of flu-like symptoms since April 13.

In New Zealand, 26 students and teachers might have been infected by the flu during their trip to Mexico. Dr. Julia Peters, the clinical director of Auckland Regional Public Health Service, said that at least 22 have shown flu-like symptoms. All of the students and teachers are being quarantined pending test results. Similar health scares occurred in Israel. France, Spain and the United Kingdom, where people with flu-like symptoms have been tested for the swine flu. In the UK, test results came back negative for the deadly strain, while results from Israel, France and Spain are still pending.

In the United States, there have been twenty confirmed cases of swine-flu in the states of Kansas, Texas and California. Today, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg reported that at least 8 students from a New York preparatory school have contracted the mutated flu strain. The White House also said today that there was at least one confirmed case of the disease in Ohio, prompting the federal government to declare a "public health emergency." 

Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman, said that the swine flu outbreak "is of great concern to the White House," and that President Obama is now receiving briefings on the issue on a regular basis. Gibbs added, "I would tell people it's certainly not a time to panic ... The government is taking all the steps it needs to and must do to take the precautions to deal with whatever size and scope we may be facing."

The WHO is taking the outbreak very seriously, calling it a "public health emergency of international concern" that has a "pandemic potential." The WHO's emergency council met on Saturday for the first time since its creation. If the committee decides that the swine flu outbreak is an international public health emergency, WHO could recommend travel warnings and restrictions and possible border closures.

The Center for Disease Control says that swine flu symptoms include a fever above 100º Fahrenheit, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, coughing, sore throat, lack of appetite, runny nose, breathing problems and fatigue. However, not all symptoms are present in each case of swine flu.