UK buys 60m face masks as new cases of swine flu emerge

Three new British cases of swine flu were confirmed yesterday as the Department of Health stepped up its emergency response with plans to purchase additional stocks of antiviral drugs and face masks.

All three - a 12-year-old girl from Paignton, Devon, a 41-year-old woman from Redditch, Worcestershire, and a 22-year-old man from north-west London - had recently returned from Mexico.

The child was on the same flight into Birmingham as the Scottish honeymoon couple who tested positive earlierthis week. Her school has been closed for a week.

The number of suspected cases had risen to 78 by early yesterday afternoon, but the figure fluctuated as some were discounted after negative test results and others emerged.

Before the World Health Organisation last night declared a pandemic alert phase five, its second highest alert level, the UK health secretary, Alan Johnson, revealed an array of measures to combat the disease in Britain, including obtaining extra supplies of antiviral drugs to protect 50 million people - more than three-quarters of the population.

Current UK stockpiles of Tamiflu and Relenza are enough to cover 33 million.

The Department of Health could not give a figure for the cost of additional drugs. Prior to this week it had already spent £500m in "pandemic preparedness" - a sum that includes previously purchased antiviral drugs, vaccines and advance supply agreements for emergency medicines.

The further doses would "come through over the coming weeks", Johnson promised. The level of antiviral protection available was already far higher than any other country in the world, he added.

There is no evidence that providing the public with face masks would do anything to prevent the spread of the disease, but Johnson said 60m face masks would be ordered for "frontline" NHS staff, who may require several changes of mask in the course of their work.

There are signs of increased public demand for face masks. One online distributor, Windsor-based Surgical Face Masks, stopped taking orders yesterday, claiming to have been deluged by up to 5,000 orders since Saturday.

A factory in County Durham making face masks, run by the company 3M, has increased production to 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet demand from the NHS.

The health secretary said: "To keep the public informed, a mass public health campaign will begin [today], with print, TV and radio adverts. The adverts will warn the public about swine flu and remind people to cover their noses and mouths with tissues [when they sneeze or cough] and then throw the tissue away."

The slogan will be "Catch It, Bin It, Kill It", referring to the advice to use throwaway paper tissues when ill, and to wash hands regularly. An information leaflet will be posted through people's doors next Tuesday.

The Department of Health has set up a telephone line for the public to ring for updates on the situation. The number is 0800 1513513.

Health Protection Agency staff are also being sent to UK airports that have direct flights to Mexico to hand out advice to passengers. Airlines are being asked to keep passenger seating records, normally purged after 24 hours, for a longer period to trace potential infection contacts.

"The virus is giving us more time than we would normally expect in a flu epidemic," said Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer. "It's possible it will evolve as it passes through the population." It could yet become more virulent. To be effective, he said, antiviral drugs have to be administered within 24 hours of the first symptoms appearing.

The decision to close the school in Devon until next Tuesday is in line with Health Protection Agency and WHO guidelines: seven days is the incubation period for the flu.

Fears of a fresh outbreak of swine flu in Scotland subsided yesterday after health authorities said 13 of the suspected cases had proven negative.

The Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said tests on eight of the nine people who had been in contact with the first Britons to catch it, Iain and Dawn Askham, had shown they did not have the same virus.

In a further development, tests on five of the 14 further suspected Scottish cases which came to light on Tuesday were also negative, while another two suspected cases were no longer of concern.

The minister said, however, that a further 24 suspect cases from across Scotland were under investigation, in Ayrshire and Arran, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Highland and Lothian.

All those involved had travelled in Mexico and other affected areas. Added to the outstanding tests on the first wave of suspicious cases, there were now 32 cases under investigation in Scotland. However, the lack of any further transmission of the virus so far within Scotland should give affected families and authorities in England some reassurance after three confirmed cases came to light in Torbay, London and Birmingham, she later told reporters.

"I do think the experience we've had to date, and I stress to date, does give cause for optimism, not just in Scotland, but in other parts of the UK," she said.

However, she warned it was still possible further cases would emerge. Sturgeon said she had spoken to Iain Askham, now entering his sixth day in an isolation ward, by telephone: "He said he was feeling well, he was feeling better. I think they're looking forward to getting back to normal, although when I said that to him he said he had forgotten what normal felt like."