Japan's total infection cases of A/H1N1 influenza have exceeded 620 by Monday night with new cases detected in about a dozen prefectures.

However, Kobe of Hyogo Prefecture, where group infections in Japan were first found, reported no A/H1N1 patients for the first time since the outbreak in May.

A total of 119 cases have so far been reported in Kobe, making it one of the areas hardest hit by the new flu in Japan along with neighboring Osaka Prefecture.

Meanwhile, a former World Health Organization expert on flu, Hitoshi Oshitani, has warned that large-scale outbreaks are inevitable in Japan in the immediate future.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2009)