A senior World Health Organization official said on Sunday that the agency's emergency committee would meet for a second time on Tuesday. They are scheduled to examine the extent to which a deadly swine flu strain has spread, and to consider whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.

Doctor Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General of WHO said "and certainly I think all countries are looking at this situation very seriously, but it's also clear that we are in a period in which the picture is evolving. It is also clear that we are in a period in which we have to be very careful to collect the best possible information."

The WHO's emergency committee is still trying to determine exactly how the virus has spread. Raising the pandemic alert phase could entail issuing specific recommendations to countries on how to halt the disease. So far, the WHO has only urged governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.

The WHO called the outbreak a public health emergency of "pandemic potential" since the virus can pass from human to human. The organization is also considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even on border closures.

(CCTV April 27, 2009)