The Florida health department on Thursday reported six new deaths and more than four hundred new cases of the A/H1N1 flu for the past week, while local health officials said the death toll of the new virus had nearly doubled in the state for the week.

The department said that, as of Thursday, there have been 2,188 confirmed and probable cases of the A/H1N1 flu, 407 more than the previous record of 1,781, or increasing 23 percent in the past week.

Meanwhile, state health officials on Thursday confirmed the 13th death of the new virus in the state after a 22-year-old died in Sarasota County.

Of the 13 victims, six had died in the past week. This sharp increase of fatalities of the new virus seems unpredicted by the health officials and local citizens in the southeast U.S. State.

The state health officials are urging people to be prepared for the pandemic declared by World Health Organization last month.

They said that the federal government has allocated more than US$20 million in grants to help Florida prepare for the 2009 fall flu season.

The state surgeon general Viamonte Ros said that Florida is preparing for massive A/H1N1 flu immunizations, starting with schoolchildren, as the federal administration urges states to prepare for the likelihood that the virus might worsen in the fall.

"We're already meeting with local schools and day-care centers on how we would do this," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2009)