British Health Secretary Andy Burnham said on Thursday that the infection rate of A/H1N1 flu in Britain could reach 100,000 a day by end of August.

Burnham told the House of Commons that there was a "considerable rise" in swine flu cases last week, adding that cases are doubling every week. At this rate, Britain could see more than 100,000 cases per day by the end of next month, he said.

Therefore, Britain will immediately change its way to deal with the virus, meaning doctors would no longer test for the A/H1N1 virus, but urge anyone with symptoms to stay at home, Burnham said.

He said: "We have always known it would be impossible to contain the virus indefinitely and at some point we would need to move away from containment to treatment."

The British Health Protection Agency announced on Thursday that a further 518 people had been confirmed in England with the virus, while the figure for Britain as a whole rose to 7,447.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2009)