Nine additional A/H1N1 flu cases have been diagnosed on Thursday in Israel, local news service Ynet reported on its website.

The latest cases have brought to 77 the total number of confirmed cases of the globally spreading disease in the Jewish state.

According to the report, five of the new patients contracted the disease locally, and four became ill during visits to the United States.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief declared that the organization has decided to move its A/H1N1 flu alert level to phase six and that the widely spreading flu has developed into a full pandemic.

Margaret Chan told a news conference that the full pandemic in 41 years was assessed as a "moderate" one.

This is the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. As of Wednesday, 74 countries have officially reported 27,737 A/H1N1 infection cases to the WHO, including 141 deaths.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)