Swine Flu: California declares state of emergency

The governor's office said the declaration was not sparked by the deaths of two men but in part because California was the first U.S. state to confirm a case of the H1N1 virus.

Los Angeles Coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey told the Los Angeles Times that a hospital in Bellflower, Calif., reported the death of a 33-year-old Long Beach man who was brought in Saturday with symptoms resembling swine flu. The other death was a 45-year-old La Mirada man who died April 22 at a Norwalk, Calif., hospital.

The Emergency was declared "as a part of the state's aggressive approach to preventing the spread of the deadly virus, it added.

Under a state of emergency, all state agencies and departments are required to help the Department of Public Health and the state emergency plan to take whatever measures that are needed to resist the potential pandemic.

The new strain of swine flu has killed up to 149 people in Mexico, but cases seen elsewhere have been mild.