As many as 31 people have died of swine flu in the last four months in Punjab, the state government informed the assembly on February 20.

Replying to the calling attention notice in the ongoing Budget Session here, Health minister Brham Mohindra informed the House that a sudden increase in the number of swine flu cases had been observed since January 2019. "378 positive cases of swine flu have been reported in the state from October 1, 2018, till February 11, 2019. Of these, 31 deaths have been reported," Mohindra said.

Akali MLA Sukhwinder Kumar and AAP MLA Nazar Singh Manshahia drew the attention of the minister towards problem being faced by people in the state due to H1N1 virus. Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains claimed that the death toll because of the flu in Punjab was much more than what the government was claiming.

Bains claimed that alone 55 people had died of the flu in just one month and these are the figures procured by NGOs from several hospitals. Mohindra claimed that the state was fully geared up to deal with the situation and provide diagnostic and curative treatment to all the patients.

He further informed the House that isolation wards had been set up in three government medical colleges, district hospitals and sub-divisional hospitals. Replying to another calling attention notice, Mohindra stated that the total number of people suffering in Punjab from hearing impairment was 1.46 lakh and not 10 per cent of the population as claimed in the calling attention notice. "The Punjab government is conscious to the problem of deafness and has taken effective measures for detection and treatment of persons suffering from hearing impairment," the minister said.