China's confirmed cases of swine flu stood Wednesday at more than 100 after 12 more patients tested positive for the virus, while the World Health Organization said a spike in infections in Australia may push it to finally announce the first flu pandemic in 41 years. New infections were also reported in Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand and Thailand, Associated Press reported. WHO says the virus has infected more than 26,500 people in 73 countries and caused 140 deaths. Most of the cases have been in North America, but Europe and Australia have seen a sharp increase in recent days. Australia's cases jumped to more than 1,000 on Monday and reached 1,211 on Tuesday afternoon. If swine flu is shown to be spreading rapidly from person to person in another world region beyond North America, such as Australia, that should trigger the conditions for WHO to declare a pandemic, meaning the outbreak has gone global. «We are getting really very close to knowing that we are in a pandemic situation,» WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said in Geneva on Tuesday. In China, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin remained quarantined in a Shanghai hotel Wednesday after a passenger on his flight Sunday from New Jersey showed flu symptoms. His spokeswoman said Chinese officials haven't said when they'll end the quarantine for the mayor, his wife and a security guard. China, which has confirmed 101 cases on the mainland, has been quarantining people exposed to the virus and is checking the temperatures of passengers at airports throughout the country. The bustling port city of Tianjin confirmed its first case, a 9-year-old Chinese boy who returned with his mother from Canada on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said late Tuesday. A 19-month-old Chinese girl in the coastal province of Fujian caught the virus from her father who recently traveled to Canada, it said. There have been at least nine cases of local transmission of swine flu on the mainland, but experts have said it does not represent a serious threat to communities. There were eight new cases in Beijing, one in eastern Shandong province and another in the central province of Hunan, the ministry said. In the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, which has tallied swine flu cases separately, officials said four more people have been confirmed with swine flu, bringing the number of cases there to 45. Two earlier traveled to the U.S. or Canada, while the others recently returned from Thailand and Australia. South Korea confirmed five new cases, bringing its total to 53. All were South Koreans who had traveled to the U.S., Australia or the Philippines, the Health Ministry said. Thailand's public health ministry confirmed three new cases _ all people who recently returned from the U.S. or Canada _ bringing the country's total to 16. The head of the ministry's Disease Control Department, Somchai Chakrabhandu, said Wednesday three others were recovering in hospitals. He said two of the new cases were 20-year-old men who returned from the United States on June 7 and 8, respectively, where they were working and studying. They developed flu symptoms after returning to Thailand. The third case was an 11-year-old boy in the capital, Bangkok, who has never traveled abroad. New Zealand confirmed four new cases, bringing its total to 23. Twenty of the cases were contracted outside the country, while the three others were close contacts of infected travelers, Chief Public Health Adviser Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said.
