The Japanese government relaxed its guidelines for dealing with the new A/H1N1 influenza on Friday although the total infection tally is still on the rise.

Under the revised guidelines, the government basically allows every medical institution in the country to see new-flu patients and for people with mild symptoms to recuperate at home.

The government will also stop counting all individual infections and focus instead more on early detection of group infections.

The health Ministry also decided the same day to start producing a vaccine against the new flu in mid-July, which would allow for inoculations to start as early as October, by stopping output of seasonal flu vaccine.

The tally of infections in Japan approached 750 as of Friday morning after the first cases were confirmed May 9. But symptoms are milder than initially feared and no one died due to the disease.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2009)