Pregnant woman dies of swine flu; Pune toll rise to 26

Roopali Jore, who died last night, had been put on ventilator after her admission to a private hospital on August 20. She had tested positive for the virus, officials said.

With cases of the viral infection continuing to pour in, Pune District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi has appealed to private hospitals to screen the patients who approached them with flu symptoms and not to summarily direct them to the already overburdened civic and government hospitals.

He also asked people to avoid crowding at public places and Ganesh utsav pandals in the city, the worst hit by the influenza virus in the country.