The 17 cases came one day after a sharp rise of 43 cases across the country on Friday.

Earlier Friday, Thailand also quarantined 10 New Zealand tourists after one of them was found to have high fever while crossing at the Aranyaprathet border checkpoint in the northeastern province of Sa Kaew.

In Malaysia, the health authorities confirmed the 12th case of A/H1N1 flu in the country on Saturday.

The latest case involved a 19-year-old medical student who had returned here on Wednesday after a 17-day holiday in Melbourne, Australia.

Another 15 suspected cases are waiting for lab test results.

The ministry said there were still no cases of local transmission in the country, but expressed worries about the situation of imported cases and urged those returning home from affected countries to limit their movements for seven days.

In India, a boy, 1.5 years old, was tested positive for the newflu virus on Saturday, one day after his six-year-old sister was confirmed to be infected in the central city of Hyderabad, according to local media report.

The two children arrived in India with their parents from New York on June 10. They are receiving treatment in hospital, accompanied by their grandfather, who was put on anti-viral drugs and has tested negative for the virus.

In the WHO's latest report on Friday, 74 countries have officially reported 29,669 cases and 145 deaths in the world. The tally, though lagging behind the situation, is considered secure.

The WHO has raised the epidemic alert to phase 6, the highest level, which means widespread human infection, but it "considers the overall severity of the influenza epidemic to be moderate" at this time, according to its website.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2009)