NEW YORK — The tally of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States jumped Sunday to 241 in 34 states, but officials said that's largely from catching up on a backlog of lab tests rather than a sudden spurt in new infections.
The new count reflects streamlining in federal procedures and the results of tests by states, which have only recently begun confirming cases, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Because states are now contributing their results, and because there are many cases to analyze, "I expect the numbers to jump quite a bit in the next couple days," she told reporters Sunday.
Beyond eating into the backlog, the new number also reflects that "we do think this virus is fairly widespread," she said.
"Virtually all of the United States probably has this virus circulating now. That doesn't mean that everybody's infected, but within the communities, the virus has arrived."
Early Sunday, the CDC updated its number to 226 cases in 30 states, up from 160 in 21 states. Later, four more states reported confirmed cases.
Mexico's health secretary said Sunday that his country's outbreak is "now in its declining phase," but Schuchat noted that the U.S. got off to a later start. "We are just in the upswing here," she said.
Scientists are still gathering information on the severity of the nation's 30 hospitalized cases, she said. They are mostly older children and young adults, in contrast to ordinary flu, which tends to send the elderly and very young to the hospital, Schuchat said.
The only U.S. swine flu death has been that of a Mexican toddler who was visiting Texas.
Local authorities announced more school closings Sunday, including all 24 schools in a district west of Detroit after a high school student came down with an apparent case of the illness.
On Sunday, U.S. health officials said they were cautiously optimistic that the swine flu isn't as dangerous as first feared, but they urged people to keep taking precautions. They said they can't predict if the virus will roar back in the fall.
"The good news is when we look at this virus right now, we're not seeing some of the things in the virus that have been associated in the past with more severe flu. That's encouraging, but it doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting CDC chief.
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