Four more cases of Influenza A/H1N1 were confirmed in New Zealand on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 23, the country's Health Ministry said.

One of the new confirmed cases involved a woman from South Island who arrived in Auckland from Chile on flight LAN801 on June4.

Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Alistair Humphrey said the woman had the unpleasant symptoms of the flu but was not seriously unwell.

Passengers near the woman on the flight to Auckland were being contacted.

The three other new cases were from Wellington, including two who had close contact with two Wellington people confirmed as having swine flu on Tuesday after traveling together from Los Angeles to New Zealand on May 31.

Of the confirmed cases, eight were still in isolation while the rest had recovered. The confirmed cases have been in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hawke's Bay.

The Ministry of Health said they were also watching 10 other probable cases and 103 suspected cases.

It said doctors were reporting an increase in the number of people with flu symptoms, but these were generally winter colds and seasonal flu.

Director of Public Health Mark Jacobs urged anyone who believed they had swine flu to phone a doctor rather than visit a medical center or hospital.

"When someone turns up to see their GP without phoning first, and is infectious with Influenza A (H1N1) there's potential for the virus to spread to others in the waiting room," Jacobs said.

This included people with flu symptoms who had either returned from overseas in the past week or had close contact with people confirmed as having swine flu.

"This week we have had to isolate members of the public who were in a waiting room, along with staff from medical centers who came into close contact with a person who is now a confirmed case," Jacobs said.

A total of 73 countries had officially reported 25,288 cases of Influenza A/H1N1 infection, including 139 deaths.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)