4,694 cases of swine flu around the world

The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of the swine flu or A(H1N1) virus has increased to 4,694 - double from the last Friday's figure - and also claimed 53 lives around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

According to latest WHO update, Mexico and the US have topped the list of 30 countries where laboratory-confirmed human cases of the virus have been reported. Mexico has 1,626 cases with 48 deaths while the US has 2,532 with three deaths.

"WHO's pandemic alert level remains at Phase 5 - on a six-point warning scale - as it has for the past several days," Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Acting Assistant Director- General for Health Security and Environment said.

"Community-level sustained human-to-human transmission has been documented in North America, in Mexico and in the United States most clearly. We do not see clear evidence of sustained community-level transmission going on in other countries yet," he said.

Dr Fukuda noted that it is possible that the alert level will go up to Phase 6, which would mean that the spread of the virus has become established in another region outside of North America and is spreading at the community level.

At the same time, the current situation could stabilize where it is now, or the alert level could even go back down to Phase 4 in the future. The agency said it is mindful of the many travel-related cases that have now been reported from a large number of countries in almost all regions of the world. 

Sensex flip-flops; IT, banks lead

The benchmark Sensex recovered 53 points from its initial losses in late morning deals on the back of renewed buying by foreign funds.

Market participants also ignored weakness in overseas markets and purchased shares from IT and banking segment, helping the recovery, stock brokers said.

Tracking the weak global cues, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share bellwether index resumed lower at 11,629.97 but rebounded to quote at 11,736.48 at 1015 hrs, a rise of 53.49 points or 0.46 per cent from its previous close.

On Monday, it closed lower by 193.44 points or 1.63 per cent.

Similarly, the 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also edged up by 5.55 points or 0.16 per cent to 3,560.15 at 1015 hrs from last close.

Although political worries over the possibility of changing scenario after the election results due on May 16 dampened the sentiment, a broker said, adding that buying by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) supported the market

From Asian indices, Taiwan was down by 3.36 per cent, Singapore by 1.25 per cent, Japan by 1.20 per cent, South Korea by 0.69 per cent and Hong Kong by 0.62 per cent while China was up by 0.18 per cent in their morning trade.