When the announcement was made the number of confirmed cases globally was 28,000 – including over 800 in the UK – resulting in 141 deaths. Most cases have been mild and the people affected have recovered quickly.

As Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson pointed out, the pandemic declaration will not significantly change the way we are dealing with the infection at the moment.

We will continue to investigate every case that occurs and treat the contacts with antivirals as necessary.

The only difference we will see is that the Health Protection Agency will be treating the closer contacts of the cases, rather than the more far-flung ones.

This change of approach has been adopted because of what we have learned about how the disease is being transmitted.

Flu viruses can change their pattern of attack, so when we come into the flu season in the autumn and winter in this country we need to watch carefully to see if the character of the virus is changing.

It is responsible for making sure progress is maintained on the delivery of the regional Better Health Fairer Health strategy. Each of the ten advisory groups set up to take the work forward will submit updates to the board.