Brazil's Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 72 new cases of A/H1N1 flu have been confirmed in the country, bringing the total number of infected people to 977.

According to the ministry, 42 of the new cases are from Sao Paulo state, which gathers almost half the total cases in the country. The number of suspected cases of H1N1 flu reached 2,973, the ministry said.

So far, H1N1 flu has killed one person in Brazil, a 29-year-old man from Rio Grande do Sul state.

According to the ministry, most infected patients are either recovering or have already been discharged. A total of 563 of them caught the flu while traveling abroad, mostly to Argentina; other 278 were infected in the Brazilian territory, and the remaining 136 cases are still under investigation.

Despite the sharp increase in the domestic transmission cases, the authorities maintained the stance that the virus is not circulating freely in Brazil, saying that all cases of domestic transmission are patients who had direct contact with someone infected abroad.

So far, H1N1 flu has infected more than 94,000 people in the world, including 429 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)