Blackburn believe that the swine flu outbreak within the club is under control.

A below-strength Blackburn Rovers shook off the illness besetting their squad to ease into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup with a 5-2 home win over Peterborough United.

Footballers were today warned that spitting could increase the risk of spreading swine flu as players at two Premier League clubs were struck down by the virus.

Bolton manager Gary Megson has revealed that members of his own squad have suffered with swine flu, but is not worried about the virus spreading between players on the pitch.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed that a third member of his squad has come down with swine flu ahead of tomorrow's fourth round Carling Cup tie against Peterborough.

President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring H1N1 swine flu a national emergency, according to the White House. The proclamation, which Mr Obama signed on Friday night, will make it easier for US medical facilities to handle a surge in patients by allowing the waiver of some requirements of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health insurance programmes as needed, the White House said in a statement.

A sharp increase in the number of patients with swine flu admitted to critical care, many of them young, was highlighted by government experts yesterday as they warned the NHS faced a tough winter ahead. The number of deaths in the UK has risen to 128, more than half of them of people aged under 45. In England the number of patients in critical care has risen to 99, the highest since the pandemic began.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, launched a mass immunisation programme against swine flu yesterday, with a call to frontline health and social care workers to get themselves vaccinated against the virus.

Health chiefs at Northern Ireland's Western Trust are facing growing demands to explain why the family of a teenage girl who died with swine flu was not told she had the virus until two days after her funeral.

Two more people have died after contracting swine flu, the Scottish Government has said.

Whatever happened to the swine flu pandemic? Instead of the rapidly mounting "second wave" we were warned of three weeks ago, the disease is now said to in a "slow burn", whose peak may turn out to be lower than previously thought. Critics who accused the Government months ago of crying wolf will be rubbing their hands in anticipation of being proved right. Don't be fooled by them.