San Fernando General Hospital set up a makeshift tent on the compound to test patients who suspect that they might have contracted the H1N1 virus. Photo: Rishi Ragoonath

There have been no new confirmed cases of the H1N1 Influenza virus at the San Fernando General Hospital. But, yesterday several people went to the tent pitched near the ambulance bay outside the Accident and Emergency Department for testing. A hospital source said: “People have been coming with flu symptoms but there have been no new cases thus far.”

At the hospital yesterday, three children were among several people who wore respiratory masks while waiting to be tested. One woman said: “I not taking any chances at all. I was not feeling well so I came here to get tested. People dying from this so I not taking nothing for granted." Last week four people who contracted the virus died at the hospital.

At a news conference at the South West Regional Health Authority on Friday, officials said they were limiting the number of visitors as a precaution. The Ministry of Health has confirmed that thus there have been 163 confirmed laboratory cases of the virus, which is commonly known as swine flu, in the country and four deaths.