US declares public health emergency for swine flu
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is declaring a public health emergency to deal with the emerging new swine flu.

The precautionary step doesn't signal a greater threat to Americans. But it allows the federal and state governments easier access to flu tests and medications.

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St. Francis Preparatory School is seen in the Queens borough of New York, Saturday, April 25, 2009. Hundreds of alumni are reuniting at a New York City high school that is being sanitized after health officials warned that eight current students probably have swine flu. A city health department spokeswoman says the building is being sanitized as a precaution. But she says it's not really the environment that passes the flu.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napilotano says roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu are being released from a federal stockpile so that states can get it if needed.

Napilotano said at a White House news conference Sunday that the emergency declaration is standard operating procedure — one was recently declared for the inauguration and for flooding.