Indonesia reported 12 new cases of people positively infected by A-H1N1 flu, putting the total cases to 20, two of them were infected in Jakarta, indicating human transmission had occurred in the country, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday.

Four of the 12 people, aged from 10 months to 50 years, were foreign visitors and the rest were Indonesian citizens, the health ministry's director general of disease control and environmental health Prof. Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama said.

"We have got 12 new positive cases of swine flu. Two of them, Indonesian citizens, have been infected in Jakarta," he told a press conference at his office.

It means that the influenza virus A/H1N1 has been transmitted among community in Indonesia.

But he declined to elaborate further from whom the two got infected.

The director said that the 12 people had been traveled to Singapore, Canada, Malaysia and Australia, before entering Indonesia.

Now they were treated at hospital in Jakarta and Bali Island, he said.

The country has taken precautionary measures to prevent spread of the virus, including ordering those from infected countries to wear mask since arriving in the country for three days.

The health ministry asked those having any influenza disease also to use masks for three days, the director said.

Indonesian has been on alert on the disease since the severity of the threat from the virus on the third level.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently raised the alert level from five to six, which means the pandemic has occurred.

The WHO has reported that the virus has infected over 80,000 people worldwide and 337 of them have died.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2009)