New Zealand's number of swine flu cases rose to 14, health officials said, and broadened to include one person who was not among a school group who recently returned from Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak that is spreading around the world.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said World Health Organization lab tests in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among members of the school group who showed flu symptoms, and that officials had decided that was evidence enough to assume all of them were infected.

Senior regional health official Dr. Julia Peters said Wednesday the tally had risen to 14 overnight because two more students and an another traveler who recently returned from North America were also believed to be infected.

"We should assume it is swine flu among the 14 cases identified," Auckland Regional Public Health Authority clinical director Dr. Julia Peters told reporters. All 14 were responding well to treatment with antiviral drugs and were in voluntary quarantine at home.

New Zealand has 44 other suspected cases that were still undergoing tests.

Officials say the swine flu strain infecting the New Zealand students is the same as that in Mexico.

In Australia, officials were testing more than 100 people with flu symptoms for possible swine flu. The new virus has been ruled out in at least 10 cases.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the government had stepped up the powers health authorities have to try to contain contagious diseases, as a precaution.

The new powers ranged from "using disinfectants on planes or at ports through to the far more extreme, which are making sure that people are isolated and perhaps detained if they don't cooperate and are showing symptoms of this disease," Roxon told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Wednesday.

In Mexico, more than 150 people are believed to have died from swine flu and thousands sickened. Around 100 cases have been confirmed worldwide, and the number was inching higher. Countries reporting cases include the United States, Canada, Scotland, Spain and Israel.

No cases of the disease have yet been confirmed in Asia, where governments were rushing to try to hold back the virus from the continent.

South Korea said it had a "probable case" of swine flu in a 51-year-old woman who returned from Mexico via Los Angeles on Sunday, though final test results were still to come.

Across Asia, scores of tests were being carried out on anyone reporting flu symptoms, and antiviral drugs were being handed out as a precaution. Singapore, Australia and others reported negative tests for the swine flu strain among flu-sickened people.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations said it was ready to quickly tap its emergency stockpile of 1 million courses of Tamiflu.

Health authorities say antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza appear to be effective in combatting swine flu if the treatment is given early enough.

From high-tech South Korea to impoverished Cambodia, thermal screening devices were in place checking for fever in passengers arriving from North America. Japan and Taiwan prepared to send doctors aboard incoming flights to perform similar checks.

Taiwan's Center for Disease Control said anyone showing flu symptoms as they arrived would be quarantined.

China is setting up of a system to enable early discovery, reporting, diagnosis and treatment, and stepping up inspections of pig farms and slaughterhouses, state media say.

In Japan, a national headquarters for dealing with new strains of influenza was established.

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Associated Press Writers Gillian Wong in Beijing, Rohan Sullivan in Sydney, Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok, Jay Alabaster in Tokyo, Peter Enav in Taipei, Taiwan, Audra Ang in Beijing, Alex Kennedy in Singapore and Jae-soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.