The number of confirmed swine flu cases worldwide has increased to 1,490 with 30 deaths, most of them in Mexico, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, according to CNN.
It marks an increase of 405 cases and four deaths since Monday evening, said WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Keiji Fukuda.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday reported the number of cases in the United States has surpassed 400.
As of 11 a.m. ET, there are 403 swine flu cases and one death from the H1N1 virus in 38 states, according to the CDC's Web site.
Fukuda said he expects the WHO's number of cases to change later Tuesday. The increase reflects confirmations of previously reported infections as well as newly reported cases, he said.
Meanwhile, residents in Mexico City restlessly waited for life to return to normal as officials from both Mexico and the United States said the worst may be over in the swine flu outbreak.
Mexican officials, citing improvement in the battle against the virus, announced plans to reopen government offices and restaurants on Wednesday -- and museums, libraries and churches the following day.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged claims by Mexican authorities who believe their cases have peaked. "I have no reason to think that is inaccurate," Napolitano said.
"What the epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain of H1N1 is that the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu -- how sick you get -- is not stronger than regular seasonal flu."
But officials from WHO and the CDC plan to monitor developments in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season arrives over the next few months as winter begins there.
Those results will help determine whether a stronger strain of the virus will return to the United States and the Northern Hemisphere during the fall flu season.
Mexican officials ordered a wide-ranging shutdown of Mexico City last week. The weeklong closure encompasses the Cinco de Mayo holiday Tuesday.
University and secondary school students can return to class Thursday, while younger students will wait until Monday.
Other public venues in the city such as bars, nightclubs, theaters and sports stadiums will remain closed indefinitely.
In all, about 35,000 public venues were shut down, transforming the bustling metropolis of 20 million people into a ghost town overnight.
Soccer games were postponed, restaurants only served takeout, and Sunday Mass -- which usually draws millions of worshippers -- was canceled. Video Watch as Mexicans put faith in cure "
"It's surreal to say the least. And the masks add to that," said Cristiano Oliveira, a Brazilian living in Mexico City for the last year and a half. "There was, to me, at least the impression that Mexico City would never slow down. And now it's halted."
In the city's Condesa neighborhood, Alfredo Sono Dillman whiled away the days watching movies on a home computer.
"We all live inside our houses because the schools have been canceled until May 11," Alfredo, 15, said. "I'm not scared like last week. This week has been easier. Now we know much better what is going on."
Doctors at the Mexico City Naval Hospital offered similar optimism. The hospital has examined more than 2,000 patients since Wednesday. None of them tested positive for swine flu, Dr. Manuel Velasco said.
"That may mean the virus is stabilizing and then can be totally controlled," Velasco said. "But we have to wait for the new week to begin."
Early Tuesday, the Mexican and Chinese government sent chartered flights to each other's countries to pick up their respective nationals stranded or quarantined because of the global swine flu outbreak.
An Aeromexico flight made several stops Tuesday throughout China to collect nearly 70 Mexican citizens who were being held in quarantine across the communist nation as part of its strict swine flu-control measures. Video Watch as Mexicans begin the journey home "
The flight landed in Beijing and Shanghai before heading to the southern city of Guangzhou, state media reported. It is expected to leave for Mexico via Hong Kong at around midnight local time (noon ET.) At least two Mexicans remain in quarantine in Beijing.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy official said four Americans are or were quarantined in China: two in Beijing and two in the southern Guangdong province.
China suspended all flights into and out of Mexico after a 25-year-old Mexican man who arrived Thursday in Shanghai from Mexico City became the Asian country's first confirmed case of the virus.
As a result, 200 Chinese citizens were stranded in Mexico City and Tijuana. A China Southern Airlines flight was expected to fetch them Tuesday, state media said.
WHO officials said there were no immediate plans to raise its pandemic alert to the highest level, from 5 to 6. In the United States, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC said she was "heartened" by the reports in Mexico.
But because U.S. cases began later than those in Mexico, the peak likely will come later in the United States.
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The St. Francis Preparatory School in New York -- which had the first confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu -- reopened Monday with a "completely sanitized" interior for students, school officials said.
More than 530 schools have been closed nationwide because of the outbreak, affecting about 330,000 students in 24 states, the U.S. Department of Education said Monday.
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