Jalandhar (Punjab): The seven students from Punjab who have tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) have been kept in isolation wards and are under constant observation, officials said.
The nodal officer to tackle swine flu, Deepak Bhatia, said four other people who had travelled on the same flight along with the students from the US have exhibited swine flu symptoms and are being monitored.
He said a special four-member team of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has arrived here to monitor the situation.
Nine students had been quarantined at the civil hospital in Jalandhar after one of their classmates tested positive for the virus in New Delhi. Of the nine, seven have tested positive and the reports of two are awaited.
The students were part of a group of 31 students and three teachers of the Guru Amar Das Public school that had gone to New York and Florida on an educational trip to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
"Those students who were discharged earlier after medication have been instructed to remain inside their homes for two-three days," said Bhatia.
The students had arrived on a Qatar Airlines flight.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday directed the state chief secretary to gear up all the government medical colleges and hospitals to effectively tackle the problem of swine flu in the state.
"On the directions of Badal, elaborate arrangements have been made at all the civil hospitals at the district headquarters," a government spokesperson told reporters in Chandigarh on Monday.
He added, "Apart from nine patients in Jalandhar, two more patients with the symptoms of swine flu are admitted at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar."
Punjab Principal Secretary of health and family welfare AS Talwar on Monday visited the civil hospitals in Jalandhar and Amritsar and reviewed the suspected cases.
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