Thaindian News

Pune, Aug 7 (IANS) As many as 53 new cases of swine flu were reported across Maharashtra Friday, taking the total number of people affected by the H1N1 virus in the state to 225, health authorities said here. Medical centres saw a steady flow of people getting themselves tested as a precautionary measure.
The new cases include a female student in Pune’s Symbiosis College and two medicos, said Ashok Ladda, additional director of the government’s Family Welfare Department. The medicos’ condition is stated to be critical and they have been put on ventilators, he added.

Of the new cases, 37 are in Pune and 16 in Mumbai, making these two cities the worst affected in the state. Of the total 225 cases in the state, 143 patients have been discharged after treatment, Pradeep Awate, head of the State Swine Flu Control Room, told IANS.

Seventy-seven patients are admitted to various government hospitals - 50 in Pune, 20 in Mumbai and seven in Panchgani, a hill station in Satara district, said Ladda.

Ironically, there were no fresh cases of swine flu reported in the state Friday morning, but the figure shot up after the test reports of 58 suspected cases were received by health authorities in the evening.

Since morning, people continued to queue up at the 15 H1N1 preliminary screening centres opened in the city Thursday, said S.R. Pardeshi, head of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s health department.

“Even yesterday (Thursday), there were huge crowds at these centres, and people have started queuing up even today for precautionary tests,” he said.

Since the past few days Pune has virtually become a ‘masked’ city with people sporting face masks at home, in public and at work places too.

“In fact, at Pune railway station, a majority of the people alighting wear face masks and cover their mouths and noses with kerchiefs of different colours… blue, green, white or any other that is available in the market,” said Awate, who travelled here from Mumbai Friday morning by the Deccan Queen superfast train.