India swine flu death toll 20

MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died today of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India’s death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.

The death was the first reported in India’s information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported. Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died today, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old woman.

CNN reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed today for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread. Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.

The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in a private school and a mother of two children aged 6 and 4, PTI said. She had tested positive for the virus while undergoing treatment at a hospital for respiratory disorders since Sunday. She was also described as suffering from other disorders. Across India, federal health officials reported 1,078 of 5,000 people tested positive for the virus.