President Obama Declares National Emergency For Swine Flu; Help For Hospitals

WASHINGTON (AP) - The swine flu outbreak is more prevalent than ever and vaccine production is running behind, and that’s helped prompt President Barack Obama to declare a national emergency.

Administration officials say the declaration is not in response to any single development, but describe it as pre-emptive and designed to speed decision making.

The emergency declaration gives Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the power to bypass federal rules to allow the opening of alternative care sites, such as offsite hospital centers at schools or community centers. Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients, while keeping infectious people away from other patients in emergency rooms.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the U.S., including almost 100 children, have died from the H1N1 strain, and 46 states have widespread flu activity.

Production delays have undercut the government’s initial estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says so far only 11 million doses of vaccine have been distributed.