Mexico's lower house, or the Chamber of Deputies, on Thursday approved a five-billion-peso (about 380 million US dollars) package to help fight the deadly new strain of A/H1N1 flu in the country.

The money will be spent on rebuilding laboratories, purchasing lab equipment, and hiring staff for primary care, laboratories and medical centers, the legislature said in its news service.

The Chamber of Deputies urged the federal government to allocate the money quickly, which will come from the Social Protection System and could increase if necessary.

Due to the lack of laboratory, only 547 samples have completed laboratory tests in Mexico, including 270 confirmed infection cases, according to Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos.

The Health Ministry opened two new laboratories on Wednesday capable of completing 65 samples every six hours.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2009)