Australia's Victorian state Health Minister Daniel Andrews said on Sunday a second school in the state was set to close this week after two more people were diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu in the state.

The new cases take the state's number to 11 - eight of whom are students, with results still pending for eight people. The national number is 16 but is expected to rise.

Thornbury High School, in Melbourne's north, will be closed for one week, Australian Associated Press quoted Andrews as saying in Melbourne, the capital of Victorian state.

The Thornbury school joins two Melbourne schools where H1N1 virus cases have been detected with hundreds of parents having to unexpectedly deal with children at home this week.

A 15-year-old boy from the school caught the virus from his friend, a 12-year-old male student who fell ill last week. The second new case confirmed on Sunday in Victoria was a 27-year-old man from the northern suburbs of Melbourne who was already in home quarantine, and was a cousin of a 17-year-old student who was confirmed with A/H1N1 flu last week.

Health experts are warning the disease could mutate and become more dangerous with the potential to hospitalize and kill people as the southern hemisphere winter flu season approaches.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2009)