“We are now seeing a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City,” said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden earlier Sunday.

“With the virus spreading widely, closing these and other individual schools will make little difference in transmission throughout New York City, but we hope will help slow transmission within the individual school communities.”

An New York middle school assistant principal who was hospitalized with the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, died Sunday apparently from flu complications, a hospital spokesman said.

Because the new swine flu virus — technically called H1N1 — is a highly unusual genetic mix of bird, flu and human viruses, health officials worry that it could continue to mutate and return in a more virulent form for next winter’s flu season.

As the swine flu continues to spread across the United States — and most cases continue to be mild — federal health officials said Monday that they’re shifting their focus from individual cases of infection to trying to project what is likely to occur with the virus in the fall.

Costa Rica reported the death of a 53-year-old patient with swine flu on Saturday, the first death from the epidemic outside of a North American nation, while Japanese authorities scrambled to limit contacts with their first confirmed cases of the disease.

Worldwide: 3440 cases
United States: 2254 total cases of Swine Flu H1N1 flu, 2 deaths, 44 states have H1N1 Swine Flu Infections. The number of cases in the United States went from 1,639 to 2,254, with 104 people hospitalized, between Friday and Saturday afternoon.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that up to 2 billion people could be infected by swine flu if the current outbreak turns into a pandemic. The agency said a pandemic typically lasts two years.

WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the number wasn’t a prediction, but that experience with flu pandemics showed one-third of the world’s population gets infected.

“If we do move into a pandemic then our expectation is that we will see a large number of people infected worldwide,” Fukuda said. “If you look at past pandemics, it would be a reasonable estimate to say perhaps a third of the world’s population would get infected with this virus.”

The H1N1 Swine Flu is though to be on the decline right now in North America, where it is currently most prevalent – but based on past Swine Flu or H1N1 Flu infections, there will be multiple waves of the Flu, with varying levels of danger. Curreently the H1N1 Swine flu is invading South America, where it is prime flu season, sparking fears that the Swine Flu H1N1 Virus may mutate further and come back to North America later this year in a more virulent, contagious and dangerous form.

H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Cases Jump Quickly

The number of confirmed swine flu cases worldwide has increased to 1,490 with 30 deaths, most of them in Mexico, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. It marks an increase of 405 cases and four deaths since Monday.

These large, fast increases in H1N1 Virus cases and Swine Flu death counts are to be expected as the secondary and third waves of the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus begin their sweep across the world.

President Obama talks extensively of the US Government plans for H1N1 Pandemic, as well as prevention of H1N1 virus/Swine flu, vaccination production plans, and H1N1 Virus treatments.

Mr. Obama said the government is distributing drugs that can defeat the current strain of H1N1.

“We began this week with 50 million courses of this treatment in the strategic national stockpile. Over the course of the last few days, we have delivered one-quarter of that stockpile to states, so that they are prepared to treat anyone who is infected with this virus,” he said.

“Out of an abundance of caution, I have also asked Congress for $1.5 billion, if it is needed, to purchase additional antivirals, emergency equipment, and the development of a vaccine that can prevent this virus as we prepare for the next flu season, in the fall,” he explained.

The United States Government has reported 141 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Mexico has reported 156 confirmed human cases of infection, including nine deaths.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths – Austria (1), Canada (34), China, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region (1), Denmark (1), Germany (4), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8).

Updated H1N1 Virus Swine Flu Map:

View 2009 H1N1 Flu Outbreak Map in a larger map