20 new cases of swine flu reported, 57 positive cases overall

Going on predicted lines, the state on Tuesday reported 20 new swine flu positive cases - the highest so far in a day ever since the disease attained a pandemic form on February 24. This took the overall tally of positive cases to 57. Doctors had suspected that Monday's unseasonal rain and people returning home for Holi would spur the swine flu count in the state.

Going on predicted lines, the state on Tuesday reported 20 new swine flu positive cases - the highest so far in a day ever since the disease attained a pandemic form on February 24. This took the overall tally of positive cases to 57.

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Doctors had suspected that Monday's unseasonal rain and people returning home for Holi would spur the swine flu count in the state.

Of those confirmed positive on Tuesday, 12 were reported from outside the state. These include people who travelled here from Delhi, Rajasthan, Noida and Jabalpur. A total of eight indigenous cases were reported from within the state, of which a majority was from the state capital. Most cases had been reported from Patna City and its adjoining areas, including Agamkuan, IDH Colony, Chhoti Pattan Devi, Noon Ka Chauraha and Gulzarbagh, besides one from Bailey Road.

Among those testing positive on Tuesday was a 12-year-old from Chhoti Pattan Devi in Patna City. A swine flu positive case was also reported from Kishanganj, said director of the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS), the nodal agency for conducting such tests.

Meanwhile, district magistrate Abhay Kumar Singh, who is also the head of district health society, Patna, convened a meeting and passed instructions to his officials not to leave any stone unturned to contain the disease.

He directed that medical teams be deputed at important public places and put up propaganda items like flex and banners on how to prevent swine flu. He also instructed that medical teams deputed at various railway stations had to send daily reports on patients screened along with photographs to the district health society. Instructions were also sent out to hold public awareness programme about the disease at Police Lines and also to constitute a team for screening swine flu suspects.

The Red Cross hospital, on its part, has begun screening on its premises near Gandhi Maidan here a short audio-visual film on swine flu and precautions to be taken against it, said its manager Md Shahabuddin.