Seven swine flu deaths, including five in Maharashtra, took India's toll to 396 Tuesday, health authorities said here.
In Maharashtra, which has recorded the maximum number of deaths and cases in the country, one death was reported Tuesday, and four others which occurred earlier were confirmed as swine flu toll Tuesday.
“We were awaiting the lab reports of these four cases. It was confirmed that they died due to swine flu today only after the reports came,” a health official said. With these five deaths, the toll in Maharashtra has gone up to 165.
Two people who had died earlier in Karnataka were also found to be infected from the contagious H1N1 virus. With these two deaths, the toll in that southern state has gone up to 112.
Meanwhile, 140 new cases were reported in the country, taking the total number of people infected with the virus to 12,185.
Thirty of the new cases were reported from Delhi. So far, in the Indian capital 3,118 people have tested positive for the virus infection.
A private school in Delhi was shut Tuesday after a class 10 student tested positive for the swine flu.
The other states from where new cases were reported were Maharasthra (23), Karnataka (22), Tamil Nadu (22), Kerala (13), Haryana (8), Uttar Pradesh (7) and Gujarat (4).