Two more Filipinos have tested positive for influenza A(H1N1) virus, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the Philippines to 16, the Department of Health (DOH) announced Saturday.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the two new cases include a 51-year-old female and a 21-year-old male, who both travelled in the United States.

Duque said the two arrived in Manila on May 26, and they started to exhibit flu-like symptoms two days later.

He also announced that the DOH is currently monitoring 29 people for possible H1N1 infections. He said a total of 240 people have been monitored by the DOH since May 1, 16 of whom were found positive.

The health secretary said three of the 16 confirmed cases have already recovered from the viral infection and have been discharged. 

The three are the first and the second confirmed cases in the Philippines, a 10-year-old-girl and a 55-year-old woman, and one of the guests at the wedding in Zambales province last May 17.

Five other guests at the wedding party, which was attended by an infected Taiwanese woman, have also been found positive for H1N1 virus.

The DOH said that based on the latest H1N1 report by the World Health Organization, there are 2,120 new cases and four deaths. The new deaths are from Canada, Mexico, and US. There are already a total of 15,510 cases and 99 deaths from 53 repotring countries.

The new countries that have confirmed H1N1 cases are Czech Republic, Dominican republic, Slovakia and Uruguay.

Flu alert system

Duque and Education Secretary Jesli Lapus have announced that the government will implement a new alert system for the cancellation of classes due to the rising number of confirmed H1N1 cases in the country.

Lapus said the critical alert signal starts at Level 3, which means there is a confirmed case in a school and a sudden increase in absenteeism due to flu. Classes in a school with a Level 3 alert have to be suspended.

The highest alert signal is Level 4, where there is more than one school with confirmed H1N1 infection within a community.

"This is when we suspend classes in schools within the community," Lapus said.

Duque said school principals, the education secretary, and the higher education chief can order the suspension of classes, depending on the level of flu alert.

The health secretary said the alert system will help the Department of Education and the DOH "target the particular area where there is a confirmed case of H1N1." He said the alert system would avoid one-time nationwide suspension of classes due to the dreaded influenza virus.

Lapus said the alert system was put up to avoid "panic" calls for suspension of the opening of classes on June 1.

The health secretary said agency members of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) as well as officials from DepEd, Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority have been informed about the influenza alert system.

Not alarming

Like most cases globally, Duque said the 14 cases in the Philippines are a "mild form of influenza."

Duque said that if the global consensus is that there is "no evidence of mutation" and that the virus is not virulent, then the DOH will be managing the virus as part of its "regular disease control program."

The health secretary said the rising number of H1N1 cases in the country should not be a cause for alarm.

He said that new influenza virus' effects seem to be milder than the regular human influenza.

The health secretary added that the DOH has enough supply of Oseltamivir. He said they have one million capsules of Oseltamivir that can be administered to 100,000 H1N1 patients.