Mexican president asks citizens to stay home from May 1-5, WHO raises alert level to 5 Mexican President Felipe Calderon told his people to stay home from Friday for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy, after the World Health Organization (WHO) said a swine flu pandemic was imminent. It raised its alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic. Calderon ordered government offices and private businesses not crucial to the economy to stop work to avoid further infections from the new virus, which has killed up to 176 people in Mexico and is now spreading around the world. "There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus," Calderon said in his first televised address since the crisis erupted last week. Twelve countries have reported cases of the H1N1 strain, with the Netherlands being the latest to join. It said a three-year-old who had recently returned from Mexico had contracted the virus. Switzerland also confirmed its first case on Thursday in a man returning from Mexico. Peru reported what appeared to be the first case in Latin America outside Mexico, also in someone who had been to the country. On Wednesday, Texas officials reported the first swine flu death outside Mexico, a 22-month-old visiting Mexican boy.