Japan said yesterday that 32 more people had tested positive for swine flu, bringing the total number of cases to 44 amid fears the virus has a foothold in the west of the country.
The latest group of flu sufferers included 29 high school students in Osaka Prefecture and the city of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, where eight students were already ill from the virus, a health ministry official said.
A college student in his 20s, a teacher in his 40s and a woman in her 50s also tested positive for A(H1N1) influenza, he said.
“Now the number of cases of domestic infection has risen to 40,” the official said.
Four other Japanese — a school teacher and three students who flew to Tokyo from Canada via Detroit — contracted the virus overseas earlier this month and have since recovered, bringing the country’s total cases to 44.
“We quickly need to collect information on the current infection,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, the top government spokesman.
“We are studying how to prevent the spread of infection,” Kawamura told reporters, adding that the Cabinet would hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the matter.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has called on the public to remain calm.
But Shigeru Omi, a former senior official at the WHO who is now head of the government’s special swine flu task force, said: “We believe that the infection is beginning to spread in the region.”
The WHO said on Saturday it was closely monitoring the swine flu situation in Japan after officials shut down schools and canceled public events in Kobe, where people with flu symptoms were seeking treatment at local hospitals.
“I had never dreamed that the new type flu outbreak would happen in my city,” said Seiji Koga, a 62-year-old construction company worker. “Since we can’t move away, we have to spend restless days.”
Dozens of high school students in Osaka and seven people in Hyogo Prefecture who had displayed few symptoms were still to be tested, officials said.
“So far we can’t find clear evidence of contact with the students in Osaka and the students in Kobe, and they have not traveled abroad recently,” an official in Osaka said.
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