Mexicans were returning to normal life today after a five-day business shutdown due to the H1N1 flu virus, with China also easing quarantine measures.
Mexico raised its confirmed death toll from the swine flu outbreak to 42 from 29, but the government says the worst is over and has eased curbs on commercial and public activity.
The H1N1 virus, which has killed a woman and a child in the United States, has reached 24 countries and infected more than 2,000 people, according to data from the World Health Organization and national authorities.
Sweden and Poland confirmed their first cases yesterday, both in women who had visited the United States. A second confirmed case in the Netherlands was announced this morning by the Dutch health agency.
The new flu, a mixture of swine viruses and elements of human and bird flu, has stoked trade and diplomatic tensions as some nations, most prominently China, quarantined Mexican citizens and products.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon accused these countries of "ignorance". They included Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, which turned away a Mexican aid shipment of maize, wheat, beans and medicines, Mr Calderon said.
China today began lifting a seven-day quarantine for passengers on a flight from Mexico City which included a man who tested positive for H1N1, the Health Ministry said.
China's official Xinhua news agency also said 25 Canadian students had been released from quarantine in northeastern Changchun. None of the students had shown flu symptoms.
Traffic again clogged Mexico's sprawling capital, home to 20 million people, and taco vendors worked the sidewalks again as Mexicans emerged from was described as "a forced vacation".
Security guards ran heat scanners over office workers to check they were free of fever, one of the flu's symptoms, as they returned to work. City officials said bars, restaurants, stadiums and cinemas will reopen today.
US health authorities remained on the alert, however, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting 642 confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu in 44 states.
The new virus appears to act like a seasonal flu but has confused doctors because it has also killed some young and apparently healthy adults in Mexico. Influenza normally has a much higher death rate for the old, very young and frail.
Poland's first case was found in a 58-year-old woman, but her condition was not serious. Sweden's first case was in a person recently returned from the United States.
If the WHO detects a sustained spread within Europe - as in North America - it could officially declare a pandemic.
The flu has prompted some 20 nations to ban imports of pigs, pork and meat products from Mexico, the United States and Canada, which in protest have urged the world not to use the crisis as a reason to create "unnecessary trade restrictions".
Agencies