Swine flu continued to claim more lives in the country with a 13-year-old city girl becoming the latest victim of the deadly virus, taking the toll in the pandemic to eight on Tuesday.
Shruti Gawade, a student of Ahilyadevi school, became the sixth victim of the H1N1 virus in
Maharashtra.
Shruti, a resident of Narayan Peth area, had been kept on ventilator since August 7 when she was brought here after being referred from a private hospital in a critical condition, said Dr Pandurang Pawar, Medical Superintendent of government-owned Sasoon hospital.
On Monday, a four-year-old boy in Chennai and two more persons from Pune - 35-year-old chemist Sanjay Tilekar and 35-year-old Ayurvedic practioner Babasahib Mane succumbed to the virus.
95 fresh case--half of them from Pune--were reported across the country, yesterday taking the total of those affected across the country to 960.
Gujarat recorded its first flu fatality on Sunday when a 43-year-old NRI, who had come from the US, died due to the disease.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in New Delhi on Monday that the "The number of swine flu cases are rising. We have to work a little harder".
Azad, who has been directed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take urgent steps to check the spread of the virus, also said he did not favour closure of schools but left it to the state governments and schools concerned to take a call.
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