BANGKOK, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Thai government announced Friday afternoon that the country found four more bird flu cases and the total number of suspected cases has increased to 12.

    Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told reporters that according to the Health Ministry, three persons were found infected by the bird flu H5N1 virus, and two of the patients had died so far.

    One of the new suspected cases, a 62-year-old women living in Nakhonsawan, 300 kilometers north of Bangkok, had died, Somkid said.

    Meanwhile, he indicated that laboratory test showed poultry sample of Phangnga province, 800 kilometers south of Bangkok, had been infected by the virus, so the province would be declared as bird flu control zone, where all poultry within a 5-kilometer radius of areas which had been detected with bird flu would be killed.

    The deputy minister also said the Nakhonphanom province would be degraded from the epidemic control zone to epidemic monitor zone as all infected animals in the province had been slaughtered.Enditem