Journalists with facemasks work at the high school where the confirmed A/H1N1 patient studies in Kobe city, Japan, May 16, 2009. Japan's first domestic case of A/H1N1 flu was confirmed on Saturday. The patient is a 17-year-old male high school student in Kobe city, who has no records of overseas travel, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. (Xinhua) Photo Gallery>>>

    TOKYO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Seven more people were confirmed to have been infected with influenza A/H1N1, bringing the number of domestic infections to 28 and the total infection cases in Japan to 32, the health ministry and local governments said Sunday.

    The seven more people include four high school students in Kobe of Hyogo Prefecture. The infection of 13 other people in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures was announced earlier in the day.

    Japan on Saturday confirmed the first eight cases of domestic infection on students of a Kobe high school. The later confirmed cases in Osaka are said to have contacted the Kobe students in a volleyball match.

    All of the 20 people had no record of overseas travel.

A notification to reinforce prevention of A/H1N1 flu is seen at a local hospital in Kobe city, Japan, May 16, 2009. Japan's first domestic case of A/H1N1 flu was confirmed on Saturday. The patient is a 17-year-old male high school student in Kobe city, who has no records of overseas travel, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. (Xinhua) Photo Gallery>>>

    Meanwhile, about 110 students at the Kansai Okura Senior High School in the city of Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, have shown symptoms of influenza since around Monday, according to local media reports.

    Around 570 educational facilities -- kindergartens, and elementary, junior and senior high schools -- in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures have decided to suspend classes for certain periods following the confirmation of new flu infections in the prefectures, Kyodo News reported.

    The health ministry had said the patients are recovering at local hospitals.

    Japan found the first four cases of infection on travelers who returned from North America.

    The Japanese government on Saturday shifted the stage of its new-flu action program from "a period of overseas outbreak" to "a nearly period of domestic outbreak" and called for companies and schools in the areas concerned to allow individuals to avoid commuting during rush hours.

    The Kyodo News quoted Tashiro, a member of the World Health Organization's emergency committee, as saying that several hundred people in Japan already may have been infected with the new flu.    

Special Report:  World Tackles A/H1N1 Flu