"There is a surge in patients in many parts of China, some schools have experienced clusters of cases, and some areas have entered the flu season," China's State Council, or cabinet, said in a statement issued late Wednesday.
"In the coming period, the epidemic will continue to develop, and the prevention and control situation is extremely grim," the State Council, headed by Premier Wen Jiabao, said in the statement posted on a government website.
The warning came after a student at Beijing's Beihang University, the nation's top aeronautics and astronautics institution, died on Tuesday of the A(H1N1) virus, state media said, citing health authorities.
The unnamed student was one of more than 3,000 new university recruits participating in compulsory military drills, the official China Daily newspaper reported.
Some of these students last week started showing symptoms of flu, such as fever, and one of them was rushed to hospital on Monday and died the next day, according to a statement posted on the Beijing health bureau's website.
A total of 28 other students have tested positive for A(H1N1) flu, but all were in a stable condition late Wednesday.
"There is a long battle ahead as the city counters this year's flu infection," Fang Laiying, head of the Beijing health bureau, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
"Near the New Year, the number of people who catch the flu... could reach 12,000 people per day. More than half of them could be infected with H1N1 influenza, and we have not reached peak time yet."
More than 6,000 residents in Beijing are contracting flu every day, the report said, citing hospital records.
"This is five times more than the same period last year, and half of these people are infected with H1N1 influenza," the report said.
More than 42,000 cases of swine flu had been reported in China as of Wednesday, according to health ministry figures. (AFP)
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