By IANS,
New Delhi: Five swine flu deaths including the first in Chandigarh were reported Monday taking the total death toll due to the Influenza A (H1N1) virus in India to 303, health authorities said here.
One death each was reported from Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. In Chandigarh a 12-year-girl, a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut city, became the first victim in the city.
“Harshita was brought to Chandigarh Friday in a very serious condition and she was admitted to Chaitanya Hospital. When the hospital authorities informed us, she was already on ventilator support,” H.C. Gera, nodal officer for swine flu, Chandigarh, told IANS.
One suspected death was reported from Kerela as well but authorities said they were yet get a laboratory confirmation.
In addition, 177 fresh cases were reported across the country Monday taking the number of affected people to 9,781.
Till date, 41,439 persons have been tested for swine flu and 23.8 percent of them have been found positive.
Maharashtra continued to top the charts with the highest number of fatalities. With one more death on Monday, the total toll in the state is 118.
Of the total fresh cases, 47 are from Maharashtra and the state – with 2,738 confirmed cases – still has the largest number of people affected by the swine flu virus.
In Delhi where 10 people have succumbed to the contagious virus, 63 new cases were confirmed Monday and 2,523 have tested positive for the virus so far.
With another death in Karnatake, 92 people have died due to the disease in the state. Seven fresh cases were also reported here and 1,003 cases have been confirmed.
Tamil Nadu too reported seven fresh cases. Till date, of the 1,213 positive cases in the state four have died.
Fresh cases were also reported from Andhra Pradesh (16), Kerela (11), Haryana (13), Uttarakhand (3), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Uttar Pradesh (4).
The World Health Organisation, which declared a swine flu pandemic in June, said the total number of laboratory confirmed cases worldwide is now over 318,925, but this estimate is significantly lower than the actual number of cases that have occurred, as many countries have stopped testing and reporting individual cases, particularly the milder ones. Nearly 4,000 people have died of H1NI across the globe.