High schools and universities reopened in Mexico, the day after offices and restaurants were cleared to take down the shutters that had been ordered to remain in place for five days in a bid to contain the outbreak.

"Fortunately, we've managed to stop the dangerous expansion the virus could have had," President Felipe Calderon said during a hospital visit.

However Calderon added that "it's not time to shout victory or to say that it's now controlled and over", warning "there will be more" cases.

The world-famous Aztec and Mayan pyramids were also reopened to tourists as Mexicans savoured the return of something approaching normality.

Under the shutdown, Mexico City -- home to around 20 million people -- had "looked like a ghost town," said Elizabeth Flores as she sat in one of the capital's cafes. "Now I'm really happy .. It is marvelous."

Keiji Fukuda, acting director-general of the UN's World Health Organisation, acknowledged the body was still struggling to get to grips with the magnitude of the A(H1N1) virus and warned it could become more virulent later in the year with the onset of the northern hemisphere's flu season.

"It is critical for countries to maintain their alertness and monitoring so this evolution can be followed as closely as possible," he said in a video conference in Bangkok.

"We don't believe we have fully got a handle on the severity of the phenomenon."

The latest WHO figures show 1,893 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infections have been reported by 23 countries. The Mexican government has recorded 42 deaths.

Only two other deaths have been recorded outside Mexico -- both in the United States -- but Fukuda said vigilance was necessary as more countries continue to report cases on their soil.

Israel's health ministry reported two new cases of swine flu, and Germany announced its 10th.

"Complacency is the greatest danger," said Fukuda. "It does appear to be a period where the virus maybe seeding itself in various parts of the world.

"What we are seeing now is milder than in 1918 (when up to 50 million people died of the Spanish influenza pandemic). But 1918 started mild in springtime and became more severe in winter."

A leading US health official also warned he still expected the swine flu outbreak to reach the level of a pandemic.

"With the number of cases in other countries, I would be surprised if we don't get to level six" on the WHO's six-phase pandemic alert scale, said Richard Besser, acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The emergence of the virus, a new strain that has combined human, swine and bird influenza, set off fears of a worldwide pandemic, even though the death toll has been relatively low.

Countries have imposed a range of measures to prevent a global outbreak, especially hitting the tourism and travel industries.

Restrictions have also been placed on meat imports, not only in Mexico but also Canada and the United States.

Russia announced on Thursday that it was lifting a ban on imports from five US states, but also added another -- Illinois -- to the list.

China has also taken drastic action to prevent the disease spreading, quarantining scores of Mexicans even though they had shown no symptoms.

The government defended its stance Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu telling reporters that it wanted "to prevent catastrophic consequences" which would impact the whole of Asia.

There has only been one confirmed case in China, in Hong Kong, where authorities released the first tranche of people held in quarantine.

A total of 33 people out of around 380 kept in quarantine were released from various locations around the city, said the Centre for Health Protection.

burs/co/mb

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