Mexico chugs back to life after flu shutdown

Mexico emerged on Wednesday from five days of lockdown as traffic clogged streets and taco vendors worked the sidewalks after extraordinary measures aimed at containing the deadly H1N1 flu were lifted.

Companies from cement maker Cemex to brewer Femsa went back to work and Mayan ruins and Aztec pyramids reopened to tourists, although many small enterprises were nervous that lingering fear over catching swine flu would smother business for days to come.

"I hope to return to normal because this is hitting us really hard," said Ernesto Morales, a waiter at the Cafe Genova in Mexico City, where following government guidance, patrons were being seated more than 6 feet apart.

Mexico's giant capital of 20 million people as well as provincial cities ground almost to a halt last Friday as the government ordered non-essential businesses to close to curb the spread of a virus that has killed 42 people in Mexico and two in the United States.

The flu crisis waylaid a country already in recession and could knock an additional 0.3 to 0.5 of a percentage point off 2009 gross domestic product, the government said.