Seven new confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 were recorded in New Zealand on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 34.

There were also 25 probable cases of influenza A/H1N1 in New Zealand, up from 10 on Thursday, the Health Ministry said.

More than a million New Zealanders could get influenza A/H1N1 over the course of the pandemic, according to the Ministry of Health.

The World Health Organization on Thursday declared the first influenza pandemic since 1968, raising its pandemic flu alert to phase six on a six-point scale.

New Zealand's Deputy Director of Public Health, Darren Hunt, said on Friday that it is estimated that up to 30 percent of the population could catch the virus over the next two years, amounting to more than 1 million people.

"Because most of the population is not immune it will spread quite rapidly and a larger proportion of the population will get it," he said.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said on Friday that New Zealand already has a tight containment strategy in place and there will be no change to that in the wake of the pandemic declaration.

He said the number of cases is bound to increase because of the international situation, but repeats that there is no need for alarm as the pandemic status relates to spread, not severity.

"Our message is don't be alarmed. New Zealand is going to carryon the way that we have and we will keep people fully informed of any changes that need to be made," Ryall told Radio New Zealand.

He did not think New Zealand needed to change its response.

"We are running a very tight containment strategy and it's working well."

All of the influenza A/H1N1 confirmed cases in New Zealand had come from people who had either come into the country from overseas, or were contracted by people in close contact with travelers who had been abroad.

But the ministry advised people not to cancel or postpone overseas trips for the July school holidays -- "simply because we don't know what the situation will be in early July."

Meanwhile, Auckland Hospital was on high alert and a child center had closed after a nurse and her child tested positive for influenza A/H1N1 after returning to the country from a family holiday in Britain on Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)