The Venezuelan health authorities made a call on Thursday to the people to keep calm as there has been no registered confirmed cases of influenza H1N1 in the country so far.

Venezuelan Health and Social Protection Minister Jesus Mantilla said that the government is ready to assist any situation of epidemic alert due to the spread of the flu in many countries.

Mantilla said that protection measures were reinforced at ports, airports and border points in the country in order to impede the virus to arriving Venezuela.

"Due to the experiences from our Mexican brothers and due to the alert of the World Health Organization (WHO), we are prepared for any situation and we have equipment and resources to give a response on time," Mantilla said.

"To the moment, Venezuela does not have any case of human flu," Mantilla said. Mantilla added that the National Institute of Hygiene "Rafael Rangel" in Caracas has evaluated 13 samples and all of them were negative.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2009)