Five swine flu deaths take India's toll to 340

New Delhi: Five swine flu deaths, three of them in Maharashtra, were reported on Saturday, taking India's toll to 340, health authorities said.

Also, 197 new cases were reported in the country, taking the number of people affected with the flu to 10,730.

Three deaths were reported from Maharashtra, which tops the chart of the number of deaths and cases in the country. With these deaths, the toll in the state has gone up to 135.

Two suspected swine flu deaths were also reported from the state but Maharashtra officials said they were yet to get laboratory confirmation.

One death was reported from Gujarat, taking the toll in the state to 35.

One death, in Karnataka on September 30, was confirmed to be due to swine flu, officials said here. The laboratory confirmation came on Saturday, they said.

"Till date, samples from 45,065 people have been tested for influenza A (H1N1) in government laboratories and a few private laboratories across the country and 10,730 of them have been found positive," the health ministry said in a statement.

Of the 197 fresh cases, 61 were from Maharashtra, taking the number of people affected with the swine flu in the state to 2,968 - the highest in the country.

Delhi is close behind. As many as 56 new cases were reported here, taking the total to 2,769 - the second highest in the country.

New cases were also recorded in Karnataka (24), Kerala (22), Andhra Pradesh (14), Haryana (10), Gujarat (7) and Uttar Pradesh (2).