Chandigarh, Dec 10 : The fear of swine flu has pressed the panic button in this union territory. With the advent of winter, there has been a sudden surge in the number of positive cases of the influenza A (H1N1) virus reported in city hospitals.

Till Oct 31, only 57 positive cases were reported here but during the next 40 days, up to Dec 10, Chandigarh got 139 new confirmed cases, raising the number of positive cases to 196.

At least 25 casualties have been reported in this region.

"We have screened 617 suspected cases of swine flu and 196 of them tested positive. Out of these, 111 belonged to Chandigarh while remaining cases are from Punjab and Haryana," a health official said Thursday.

"FIftysix cases were reported from different schools (49 alone from private schools) whereas over 30 were doctors working in leading hospitals of Chandigarh," he added.

In the last three days, seven deaths due to swine flu and at least 15 new cases have been reported in city hospitals.

A testing facility is available here at the virology department of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), which is also catering to the needs of neighbouring states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Isolation ward facilities are available here at PGIMER and at government hospitals in Sector-16 and at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32.

"Our health department is fully equipped with all the necessary equipment like face masks, anti viral drugs (Tamiflu) and laboratory facilities for preventing and controlling swine flu cases. There is no need to panic and we are capable of handling any kind of emergency situation," H. C. Gera, UT nodal officer for swine flu, told IANS Thursday.(IANS)