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Source: abs-cbnnews.com

-- The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it has recorded a total of 5,212 cases of Influenza A (H1N1) in the country as of October 17, 2009.

Of that number, 30 have resulted in deaths while the rest have recovered from the illness, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said.

Lyndon Lee Suy, DOH Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases program director, earlier said the government is monitoring all incoming passengers in the country's airports for passengers who show symptoms of A (H1N1).

He said the health monitors are a form of precautionary measure after US President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency last Saturday.

The emergency declaration, which Obama signed late Friday, lets doctors and nurses temporarily bypass certain federal requirements so they can better handle a spike in influenza A(H1N1) patients.

The declaration comes just days after Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that demand was outstripping supply of vaccine for the novel flu strain.

"The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve," Obama said in the declaration.

"The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities."

Thomas Frieden, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief, earlier said swine flu has infected "many millions" and killed over 1,000 people in the United States -- around a fifth of the world's total -- since the outbreak began six months ago.

At least 4,735 people have died from swine flu infections since April, when an outbreak of the new flu strain was first reported in Mexico before spreading quickly to the United States, according to the World Health Organization.