34 new cases of swine flu, highest reported in a day since January, today surfaced in West Bengal even as no death was recorded in the last 24 hours due to H1N1 virus, officials said here.
"In the last 24 hours we do not have any death due to swine flu anywhere in the state," West Bengal Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Moloy Dey told PTI.
"But 34 persons tested positive for the H1N1 virus in the same period taking the total number of infected people in the state to 392 since January," he said.
Out of 34 new cases, 15 were from the city, nine from South 24 Parganas, five from North 24 Parganas, three from Howrah and one case each from Hooghly and Purba Medinipore districts, he said.
Only one person has been discharged from a private hospital after he recuperated, he said.
However, the state has instructed one of the three private hospitals to stop conducting test for swine flu- infection after it "broke the protocol and violated rules required for the diagnosis of the disease", Dey said.
"We have found that one private hospital has been breaking protocol while conducting the tests for swine flu infection. So we have asked them to stop testing and report us," he said.
Apart from the state-run city-based National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), the Health Department has approved three private hospitals to conduct tests for swine flu infection.
Meanwhile, senior CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb was "clinically stable", according to a statement released by hospital.
The six-member medical board constituted by the hospital today went through Deb's reports in the morning and "there is nothing much changes in Deb's treatment and prognosis is better", the statement added.
