NZ swine flu death confirmed

A woman who died earlier this month in Middlemore Hospital in Auckland was killed by swine flu, the Ministry of Health says.

Her death brought the number of people to die from the pandemic in New Zealand to 12, according to the Ministry of Health.

The Coroner's office reported 14 people had died of swine flu.

The Ministry of Health had reported almost another 100 confirmed infections since Friday, bringing the number of cases to 2662 from 2585.

The ministry's deputy director of public health Fran McGrath said the coroner's figure included some deaths where a person tested positive to H1N1, but the cause of death had not yet been confirmed.

The World Health Organisation was no longer issuing tables tallying the total number of infected people, due to the rapidly increasing numbers of cases, Dr McGrath said.

- NZPA