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INUVIK - Peter Carrington couldn't wait to see family and friends in Mexico last week, but the certainty of more than a week in quarantine put a kibosh to those plans.

Carrington, whose mother hails from Mexico City, changed his long-standing vacation plans after he contacted Canadian government officials and was told because of the recent swine flu outbreak in the country he would be quarantined for two days upon arrival to Mexico and for up to a week upon his return back to Canada.

Oliver Carrington, serving Roy Ipana at News Stand on Monday, said his brother Peter was forced to give up his vacation plans to Mexico last week due to the country's swine flu outbreak. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

But no need to shed any tears, because the owner of News Stand managed to salvage his vacation plans. He's now enjoying himself on a Caribbean island for the next few weeks.

Even though he was unable to be reached for comment, his brother Oliver said his sibling was "pretty bummed" about having to change his travel plans at the last minute. Oliver said they both agree the situation has been blown way out of proportion and doesn't appear one bit worried about his loved ones in Mexico coming down with the dreaded sickness, which is passed on like the common flu.

"I think it's pretty ridiculous," he said. "People get sick all the time: flus, colds and nobody really cares about those people. We put a name to it and the media blows it up. All the sudden it's a huge epidemic world-wide and everyone has to walk around with a little doctor's mask to make sure they don't get coughed on.

"Everybody's freaking out. Look at SARS, everyone waited for the pandemic to arrive. That didn't happen. Mexico has a population of 100 million people and look at the numbers infected."

As of Monday, Mexico had 727 confirmed cases and at least 27 deaths due to the outbreak. For several days last week the country virtually shut down to avoid further spread of the virus. Globally, the virus has infected more than 1,276 people in 20 countries, but the World Health Organization has yet to label the situation a pandemic. There have been 140 cases reported in Canada and no deaths.

Last week Dr. Kami Kandola, acting NWT chief medical health officer, announced medical officials were monitoring a few residents showing flu-like symptoms.