Canada lifts travel advisory to Mexico as officials see H1N1 spread decreasing

OTTAWA, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Canada lifted its travel advisory to Mexico Monday while the country's top public health officer sees the worst of the H1N1 outbreak over.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said Monday in a travel health notice that it is no longer recommending postponing non-essential travel to Mexico due to the H1N1 flu virus.

"With the H1N1 virus circulating within Canada, travel to Mexico is no longer a heightened risk factor for the spread of the virus," the notice says.

As a result, specific-travel measures such as distributing health alert notices to passengers on Canadian flights to Mexico, and having quarantine officers meet direct flights from Mexico to Canada, will be ceased.

However, the Canada Border Services Agency will keep on checking travelers for signs of the flu, and officials will continue to provide all international travelers entering Canada by land or air with hand-outs that include information about the H1N1flu virus, what to do to avoid getting ill and steps to take if the traveler experiences symptoms, it says.

Meanwhile, Canada's top public health officer said Monday the H1N1 strain's spread appears to be decreasing as the flu season is ending.

"It looks at this point like we're over the worst of it in Canada for this season," David Butler-Jones told reporters.

"But, again, I'm going to hedge my bets on that because we're watching very closely and it's still within the incubation period of previous cases, so you could see a second spike.

"But, so far, we've not seen that ... and the peak does appear to be -- in all three countries, actually, Mexico, the United States and Canada -- largely toward the end of April, beginning of May."

So far there have been more than 520 cases and one death linked to the H1N1 virus in Canada.