Philippine health authorities reported that there have been 23 newly-confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 77 in the country.

All the new cases were found in a cluster of schools, which have already voluntarily suspended their classes due to the novel virus, Health Secretary Francisco Duque told reporters. The schools include De La Salle University Taft, East Asia College, De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, St. Andrews School Paranaque, and Ateneo de Manila High School.

The 23 newly-confirmed cases include 19 Filipinos and 4 foreigners, seven of whom have a history of travel to Japan or the United States. Duque said that the cases, all "mild", are responding well to treatments.

Duque urged school authorities across the country to continue reporting to their respective local government executives any unusual occurrence of flu-like symptoms among their students, especially those who traveled to countries affected with the A/H1N1 influenza virus.

"This effort is part of the readiness of the Department of Health to shift from containment to mitigation," Duque said.

Meanwhile, the health chief said that there is still no community spread yet as the new cases were all traced to one case that earlier caught the virus during a travel to an A/H1N1 affected country.

Since May 1, the Philippine Department of Health has monitored a total of 667 Cases Under Observation, including the 77 confirmed cases. Currently, 85 cases have pending laboratory results and 505 were negative.

Twenty-three of the 77 confirmed cases have been discharged after treatment.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2009)