Beijing has recorded nearly 60 percent more A/H1N1 flu cases over the past week, said the municipal health bureau Thursday.

The bureau said the city has recorded 1,299 cases during the period, up 58.61 percent, and 6,196 such cases involving 3,727 men and 2,469 women so far.

Beijing saw its first death of A/H1N1 flu, also the fourth on the Chinese mainland, on Tuesday. The patient, a university freshman, and some other schoolmates developed fever and other flu symptoms during a compulsory military training in the past week in Daxing District in suburban Beijing.

Fang Laiying, director of the health bureau, said high chances of infection of A/H1N1 flu and severe symptoms were normal because the general public are not immune to the flu and the possibility of more deaths could not be ruled out.

China's State Council said Wednesday the country faces "severe challenges" in the prevention and control of A/H1N1 flu after some areas reported a sharp increase in the number of patients infected by the epidemic.

The State Council, or the Cabinet, ordered government departments at all levels to beef up measures to prevent large-scale outbreak of the disease and vaccine producers to speed up their production.

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