MANILA, 2 July 2009, 1600 hrs-Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went into voluntary quarantine in a Manila hospital after returning from a two-week tour that took her to Japan, Brazil, Colombia and Hong Kong. Aides said the move was designed to set an example to other Filipinos returning from locations that had outbreaks of Pandemic H1N1 2009. The President was reported to be in good health. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of H1N1 in the Philippines more than doubled, up by 848 to 1709, since the previous official report a week earlier.

The total number of laboratory-confirmed cases in the Western Pacific Region grew by more than 1550 as, among the largest increases, Australia reported 280 more (new total: 4370), New Zealand 114 (825), Singapore 82 (783), Japan 70 (1354) and China 57 (867).

Australia was reported to be investigating the death in the state of Victoria of a 3-year-old boy who had tested positive for H1N1. Australia has so far officially reported eight deaths in connection with the disease. The eighth was a 68-year-old man who died on 29 June. He was being treated for cancer.

In China, authorities were looking into the death of a woman who died in the rest room of a hospital in Hangzhou, where she was being treated for H1N1. The cause of death was not immediately known.

In Geneva, WHO insisted that Tamiflu was still effective against Pandemic H1N1 2009, despite the first reported case, in Denmark, of resistance in a patient treated with the antiviral drug. WHO described the case as isolated, with no implications for public health. Instances of resistance to Tamiflu have also been documented with H5N1, or avian influenza.

The total number of laboratory confirmed cases in the Western Pacific Region stood at over 11 300, as of 2 July, with nine deaths (in brackets besides the case numbers below). A number of countries are now into a mitigation phase of their response to the disease and are no longer testing all suspected cases. Some countries are not reporting on a daily basis.

- Australia 4370 (8)

- Brunei Darussalam 66

- Cambodia 6

- China 867

- Hong Kong (China) 828

- Macao (China) 34

- Taiwan (China) 61

- Fiji 2

- Japan 1354

- Lao PDR 3

- Malaysia 112

- New Zealand 825

- Papua New Guinea 1

- Philippines 1709 (1)

- Republic of Korea 210

- Samoa 1

- Singapore 783

- Vanuatu 2

- Viet Nam 131