A huge increase in the number of people with flu-like symptoms has forced New South Wales (NSW) state to add hundreds of extra beds in hospitals.

To cope with a 17-fold increase in people with flu symptoms (A/H1N1 or seasonal), 550 extra beds will be added, NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca told reporters on Monday.

The number of confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases in NSW has reached 1,446. The western Sydney has been seriously hit by the epidemic.

NSW Health's Chief Medical Officer Kerry Chant said the problem was going to get worse.

"The numbers for our Sydney southwest region are the highest," Chant said.

"As time goes on, the disease will progressively spread around through the rest of metropolitan Sydney, and will also then progressively spread to our rural and regional areas."

Two people with A/H1N1 flu have died in NSW so far.

"We would estimate the clinical attack rate is going to be something like 20 to 40 percent," she said.

"Because it's a new virus, the population doesn't have any degree of immunity to it."

There had been 59 flu A/H1N1 patients in NSW hospitals, nine of them in intensive care unit as of Monday afternoon.

According to the latest update on the website of the World Health Organization on July 3, Australia has recorded 4,568 cases of flu A/H1N1 infection and nine deaths related to the disease.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2009)