The Colombian government announced on Tuesday that the confirmed cases of people infected with the A/H1N1 flu virus in the country have risen to 12.

There has been a new patient in Yopal, capital of Casanare department, who tested positive for the new virus, the Colombian Social Protection Ministry said.

The patient developed symptoms of light breathing infections on May 9, the ministry said.

The patient "is a youngster who was in contact with one of the previously confirmed cases in the same city and began with symptoms on May 9," the ministry added.

In a statement the ministry said that the patient "was voluntarily quarantined and out of danger, he is at home without hospitalization."

This case was announced one day after the last official report on the human flu on Colombia, which said that in one day the possible cases rose to 45.

Epidemiology chief from the Health Secretariat of Casanare, Ovidio Munoz, said on Tuesday that eight sportsmen infected with the H1N1 flu in the region were in quarantine, and that they were in good health conditions.

"All of the positive patients have evolved with satisfaction, they have returned to their daily life and they do not represent any risk of spreading the disease," Munoz said.

"Among their families there aren't any people with the symptoms, to the moment," Munoz added.

"There are 226 suspicious cases, one possible case, 12 confirmed, 545 discarded, 480 of them by lab tests," Colombia's National Center of Connections and the National Institute of Health said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the last 24 hours, some 1,000 cases of the H1N1 flu have been detected, to the moment there have been 9,380 reported cases of the H1N1 flu in40 countries.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)