Seven more people, including a two-month-old baby, succumbed to the deadly swine flu since Friday evening, pushing the country-wide fatalities to 63 even as the Karnataka government announced free treatment for H1N1 patients in private hospitals.
Four deaths occurred in Maharashtra and one each in Goa, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan as several more, including 44 in the national capital and 42 in Karnataka, tested positive for the dreaded disease.
With a 60-year-old man perishing in Pune in Maharashtra, the city, where all educational institutions had been shut for the past one week, recorded its 20th swine flu death.
A two-month-old baby and a 12-year-old girl, who tested positive for the virus, succumbed in Mumbai on Friday night even as the Municipal Corporation said the swine flu was not the only cause of their death.
"Swine flu may not be the sole cause of their death as both were suffering from various complications," BMC Health Officer J Thanekar said.
A 37-year-old woman, afflicted with disease, also died last night in the metropolis.
The flu claimed its third victim in Tamil Nadu when a 45-year-old man died at the government hospital in Chennai.
The man, whose throat swabs tested positive on August 19, was admitted to the hospital on August 12 with complaints of breathlessness and bleeding piles.
A 67-year-old man, suspected to be suffering from the swine flu, died at a private hospital in Goa, health officials in state capital Panaji said.
Shiva Murthy, who arrived from Bangalore on Friday, was admitted to the hospital with high fever, they said adding he breathed his last this morning.
His throat swabs had been sent for H1N1 testing to Delhi and the reports were awaited, the officials said.
In Rajasthan, a 26-year-old woman, admitted to the Sawai Man Singh hospital in Jaipur with symptoms of swine flu, died late Friday night.
The report of the H1N1 tests on the woman were awaited, Dr Narpat Singh, SMS Hospital Superintendent, said.
Forty-two more were infected in Karnataka where the State government intensified efforts to contain the H1N1 pandemic, announcing free treatment for the afflicted in all private hospitals.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi denied media reports about the death of an 18-year-old girl due the virus in the State where four had tested positive for H1N1.
"Reports about the swine flu death in the State are not based based on facts. There has been no such death," Mr. Gogoi told reporters in Guwahati.
