EL PASO, Texas -- After local health authorities went on the record saying there are no suspected or confirmed swine flu cases in El Paso, lab results have shown otherwise.

"There are no probable cases; there are no confirmed cases. Communication with a government in Mexico this morning, they have no confirmed or probable cases in the state of Chihuahua," said Dr. Michael Hill, director of the City of El Paso Public Health Department.

"There are zero cases of this particular flu," said El Paso Mayor John Cook.

"Just to reemphasize, there are no confirmed cases," said Ken Berumen, of the Sierra Providence Health Network.

Those were the comments during a news conference Wednesday afternoon where health authorities appeared calm. However, things changed less than 24 hours later.

"We have eight cases that we're not sure about, and we're sending to the CDC for further testing," said Tammy Fonce-Olivas, spokeswoman for the City of El Paso Public Health Department.

Health officials have identified eight suspected cases of swine flu in El Paso County. Fonce-Olivas would not provide details on the eight cases. KFOX wanted to get answers from the director himself but was told he was in a meeting.

KFOX: "Why can't the health department tell us where (these cases are from)? East side? Northeast? Why can't you guys tell us a little more?

Fonce-Olivas: "Right now we're not releasing any more information because it's part of an investigation that's ongoing from our department, and in addition to that, they're not confirmed cases."

Fonce-Olivas said the department is currently testing 77 specimens; eight of those will be further tested by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

"They should tell us whether it's going to scare us or not," said Adriana Perez, of west El Paso, who said the department should have said something sooner.

"In a lot of cases you want to confirm the information because you don't want to alarm people without the facts," said David Garcia, of Chaparral.

The facts right now, El Paso has eight suspected cases, not probable cases.

"Suspected are those cases we're not really sure what kind of strain they are, and we're sending them to the CDC for further testing. Cases that we would label as probable are cases that we would label as likely to be swine flu, and we would send to the CDC for testing as well," said Fonce-Olivas.

It will take five days for the CDC to come back with results. In the meantime, the health department has contacted those individuals and asked them to self-isolate themselves.