Health officials of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Tuesday held a video conference with their counterparts in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong SAR, discussing measures of tackling the spreading threat of swine flu.

During the video conference, the officials and experts from the three places reviewed the current situation of the swine flu pandemic around the world, and exchanged opinions on topics such as the quarantine arrangement of suspected patients, anti-flu drug supplies, the research and development of relevant vaccine and the rapid test of new virus, according to a press release from Macao's Health Bureau.

It was also agreed at the meeting that a name list of health experts from the three places be drawn up facilitating their direct communications, in a bid to strengthen the information sharing process and the cooperation of swine flu prevention, the Bureau also said.

The Influenza Pandemic Prevention Coordination Group, an inter-departmental task force of Macao SAR government, has raised the flu pandemic alert from level II to level III yesterday as the swine flu outbreak in Mexico continued to spread to other nations around the globe.

Over 1,600 swine flu cases has been reported in Mexico, where the first such case was detected, and has led to more than 100 deaths there, while more suspected cases were reported in the United States, South America, Europe, New Zealand, Israel and South Korea, according to the World Health Center.