The swine flu spread rapidly across the world: another 1,000 new swine flu cases were registered in the last 24 hours, the World Health Organization informed on Tuesday. The toll reveals 9,830 people contaminated and 79 dead in 40 countries, AFP informs.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis received the new A(H1N1) vaccine and declared that it currently awaits the approval of the World Health Organization to start producing the virus, the labs' spokesperson informed, quoted by AFP.

Novartis also produces a vaccine against seasonal flu and will have to choose between producing the swine flu vaccine or the seasonal flu one. For this reason, the World Health Organization might raise the alert level at 6, the maximum which means that the world faces its first pandemic of the 21st century.