New Delhi, October 10: Five swine flu deaths in Maharashtra Saturday took India’s death toll due to the pandemic to 385, the health ministry said.
While two people died of influenza A (H1N1), laboratory confirmation for three others came late Saturday. With these, the western state has reported 158 deaths so far, the highest in India.
Also, 122 fresh cases were reported during the day, taking the total number of infections to 11,778. Three of these cases have a foreign travel history and the rest are indigenous cases. India reported its first swine flu case early May in Hyderabad.
Among the fresh cases, Maharashtra accounted for 43 followed by Delhi (39) and Tamil Nadu (10). Among the states, Maharashtra tops the infection list with 3,277 cases so far, followed by 3,022 in Delhi and 1,377 in Tamil Nadu.
The health ministry said that “till date, samples of 49,659 persons have been tested for influenza A (H1N1) in government laboratories and 23.7 percent of them have been found positive”.
The national capital already has the second highest number of swine flu cases in the country after Maharashtra and with the winter approaching, the situation is going to worsen, Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia said but assured that all facilities to tackle the flu are in place.
“It’s widely known by now that as the temperature drops in winter, the H1N1 virus will spread more. However, there is no need to panic. If a number of people are testing positive, they are also recovering from the flu,” Walia told IANS.
—IANS