HONOLULU -- Starting next week, it will take a shorter time for state officials to confirm or rule out each suspected case of swine flu, or H1N1, the Department of Health said.

As H1N1 cases have spread to 11 states and the first death in the United States has been reported in Texas, the state health director said residents should to remain calm.

"We are not trying to work everybody up into a frenzy and have them overly react to the information that we are sharing," state Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said.

The DOH is receiving calls from nervous people wondering if they should refrain from sending their children to school.

"We are not saying that you should keep your children at home when there is no illness or infection in the community," Fukino said.

Lab tests have ruled out some suspected cases here, including one sick person who recently traveled to Mexico, officials said. Several other potential cases are being investigated in a three-step process that can take several days.

Specimens are first sent to private clinical labs.

"If it's flu A, then the question mark is still there, and then it goes on to the next step, which is the state lab," state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said.

Scientists at the state lab in Pearl City then test the specimens, but they still do not have the capacity to identify the H1N1, so samples must go to a third stop -- a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab on the mainland.

The CDC is sending the state lab criteria to test for swine flu and that should be in place next week.

"However CDC has indicated once the state public health lab is up and running and has full capacity for diagnostics, they will rely on the state to report out confirmed cases," Park said.

Hawaii is still in flu season so people here are still getting other types of flu. Those flu are being identified in testing so swine flu has been ruled out in every case so far.