Four more test positive for swine flu, number rises to 63

Four more persons, including two in the national capital, tested positive for swine flu taking the total number of cases in the country to 63 even as the Centre today said the "multi-pronged strategy" adopted by it has succeeded in keeping cases within negligible limits.

While two cases were reported from Delhi, one case each was reported from Mumbai and Pune.

The fresh cases in Delhi include f a 25-year-old man, who travelled from the US, and a 29-year-old woman, who came to the city from Canada, a Health Ministry official said, adding the total number of cases so far in the capital has risen to 26.

In Pune, a 24-year-old man who came from the US tested positive for the virus while the case in Mumbai involved a 23-year-old woman who travelled from Melbourne.

In Baderwah in Jammu and Kashmir, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "It is because of the multi- pronged strategy adopted by the ministry that the cases of swine flu remained almost negligible in India as compared to 275 other countries."

Of the total 63 cases, 37 have been discharged while the other patients remain admitted to various hospitals across the country.

Meanwhile, the health ministry has decided to do away with testing of blood samples for swine flu at the National Institute of Virology in Pune and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases here.