MANILA, 15 July 2009, 1600 hrs - Health authorities in New Zealand and Australia warned of an increased strain on intensive care units over the next few weeks as cases of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 continued to grow significantly.

New Zealand Health Minister, Tony Ryall, said the visits to health clinics would put more pressure on the health system as flu season peaked. "The public can expect to see full intensive care units and some surgery being cancelled at various public hospitals around the country over the next few weeks," Mr Ryall said.

Weekly consultation rates for influenza-like illness in New Zealand are nearly three times higher than for the winter peak for the past two years, the New Zealand Ministry of Health said. The highest consultation rates have been reported for children and teenagers up to 19 years old. New Zealand reported two additional deaths linked to the virus and 205 new cases in the reporting period to 15 July.

In Australia, where the reported number of cases topped 10 000, media reports said that two major hospitals in New South Wales had cancelled elective surgery requiring beds in intensive care, due to extra cases of the virus.

The reports cited the Chief Medical Office Dr Jim Bishop as saying pressure on hospitals would likely increase, peaking in August, but at present hospitals were coping well. There are currently 123 people in hospitals in Australia with the virus, 58 of them in intensive care units.

New Zealand and Australia are among several countries in the Western Pacific Region which have shifted to a mitigation phase in its response to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, and are no longer testing all suspected cases. Also, some countries are not reporting new cases on a daily basis. As a result, the actual number of infections in the Region is likely to be significantly higher than official WHO figures.

Elsewhere in the Region, Tonga reported its first two cases of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 after two women tested positive. New cases were also detected in Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Fiji, and Viet Nam.

The total number of laboratory confirmed cases in the Western Pacific Region stood at 23 905, as of 15 July, with 32 deaths (in brackets besides the case numbers below) linked to the virus.

- Australia 10 387 (19)

- Brunei Darussalam 334 (1)

- Cambodia 9

- China 1354

- Hong Kong (China) 1389

- Macao (China) 87

- Taiwan (China) 61

- Cook Islands 1

- Fiji 73

- Japan 2919

- Lao PDR 7

- Malaysia 772

- New Zealand 1984 (9)

- Palau 1

- Papua New Guinea 1

- Philippines 2668 (3)

- Republic of Korea 446

- Samoa 1

- Singapore 1111

- Tonga 2

- Vanuatu 3

- Viet Nam 295