New German H1N1 cases

Officials from Germany's national disease control and prevention agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said the two infected are a couple who had been on the same flight as a Hamburg man returning from Mexico. It has also been confirmed he has the illness.

Meanwhile, tests results have established that a 40-year-old man from Cologne, who was suspected of having the virus, does not. He recently returned from a trip to Brazil with flu symptoms.

On Sunday, Germany added H1N1 to its list of mandatory illnesses that doctors must report to health authorities if they suspect a patient to be infected. Others on the list include botulism, cholera, diphtheria and rabies.

Numbers continue to rise in Europe

Across the European Union, EU officials say the number of confirmed cases of the virus has risen to 49, which are spread over about half a dozen countries.

Spain, now with 20 cases, has the most in the EU. New infections have also been confirmed in Ireland, Italy and Austria. Nine new suspected cases have been reported in Britain and Portugal.

On the global level, the World Health Organisation updated its figures on Sunday morning to confirm a total of 787 infections in 17 countries, including 19 deaths in Mexico.

Asia's response

The virus reached Asia on Saturday, as both South Korea and Hong Kong reported their first cases.

In Hong Kong, police quarantined at least 300 guests in a hotel after a Mexican guest was found to have the virus.

The Bild am Sonntag has reported that a number of Germans, including a couple from Dresden, have been caught up in the ordeal and are being held in the Metropark Hotel Wanchai.

Kathrin and Chris Eingrueber had stopped over in Hong Kong on their way to Australia and New Zealand.

"Health wise, we are okay," Kathrin Eingrueber told the newspaper, "but the mood here in the hotel is indescribably on edge".

"There is no terrace, no pool. Our 16 square meter room is only ventilated by an air conditioner … you feel like you're in prison here."

Meanwhile in China, 49 Mexican nationals are being held in isolation. According to Mexican diplomats in Beijing, they are in quarantine in different parts of the country, even though they have shown no symptoms of the virus.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa on Saturday advised its citizens to avoid travel to China, saying Beijing had "in an unjustified manner, isolated Mexicans who had no symptoms" of the H1N1 flu.