The first case in the US was April 17, 2009. On April 22 the CDC activated the Emergency Ops Center. On April 26th Obama declared a public health emergency.
As of May 4, 2009, the CDC reported that it had deployed 25% of the supplies and medicines in the
Strategic National Stockpile to the various states.
As of April 29, only the CDC could confirm U.S. swine flu cases. Besser stated during an April 30 press briefing that California and New York had diagnostic test kits, and that the kits would be sent to all states starting the following day. On May 6, the CDC announced that testing kits were now available for all states. It was expected this would generate an increase in the number of confirmed cases as more states began doing their own tests
The proportion of US deaths due to pneumonia and influenza climbed above the epidemic threshold in the 2007–2008 winter flu season but not in the 2008–2009 season. Although the 2009 H1N1 outbreak reached epidemic levels of infection early in 2009, it did not contribute to epidemic levels of pneumonia and influenza related deaths until October 2009
On October 24, President Obama declared the 2009 H1N1 swine flu a national emergency.
[170] The declaration made it easier for U.S. medical facilities to handle a surge in flu patients by allowing the waiver of some requirements of
Medicare,
Medicaid and other federal health insurance programs as needed.