The number of confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 in New Zealand rose to 27 on Thursday, from 23 a day earlier, the Health Ministry said.

Two of the four new confirmed cases were reported in North Island's Waikato region. One was a factory worker whose travel history or link to someone who has traveled recently has yet to be confirmed. The second case was a New Zealander who arrived from Melbourne on June 5.

The two other new confirmed cases were an Auckland nurse and her child who returned from a family holiday in Britain on Air NZ flight NZ1 on June 6. The nurse worked one shift at Auckland City Hospital's Renal Medicine and Transplant Ward on June 8 and the child attended a childcare center in Meadowbank the same day. The contacts of both cases were currently being contact-traced. Ministry of Health chief public health advisor Ashley Bloomfield said on Thursday that as more people tested positive for influenza A/H1N1, more workplaces, schools, and child care centers would be affected.

"People have been highly cooperative to date. This has undoubtedly contributed to New Zealand's relatively low number of confirmed cases," Bloomfield said. "As has been demonstrated this week, each case can have a large number of contacts, and already, this virus is causing significant disruption to the regular routines and lives of those affected."

Ten of the 27 confirmed flu cases in New Zealand are being treated with Tamiflu in isolation. The rest have recovered.

A total of 74 countries have officially reported 27,737 cases of influenza A/H1N1 infection, including 141 deaths. WHO remains in pandemic influenza Phase 5 but continues to monitor the situation closely in all countries reporting cases of new influenza A/H1N1.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2009)