Nine new cases of swine flu recorded on Monday took the toll of the air-borne infection to 321 across all city hospitals. Of these, 247 are city residents and 74 are patients transferred from other cities. Of the nine patients diagnosed with swine flu, two are children aged 11 and 15 from Vakola and Goregaon and one is a 15-year-old boy from Badlapur. According to civic health department, all patients are stable and four are undergoing swine flu treatment on out-patient department basis. So far, the city has recorded 13 deaths of which 12 are out-station residents. Across the state, 99 deaths have been recorded. [related-post] Dr Pradeep Awate, from Directorate of Health Services (DHS), said, “We will notice the trend till mid March when the cases should ideally start declining. Even though the temperature is rising, the swine flu cases will take some time in dipping as the virus is still there in the air.” He added that with rising cases few complaints were received against private hospitals that declined admission to swine flu patients. “We have been talking to private hospitals to accept patients on humanitarian grounds. Overall, all hospitals are abiding only few have refused patient admission,” Awate said. mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
