NAVAPUR (India), Feb 23: Health officials sealed off an Indian town hit by bird flu for a week-long ‘quarantine’ on Thursday as immediate fears began easing that the deadly virus may have spread to humans.

Checkpoints were set up on all roads in and out of the town of Navapur, and trains passed through its station without stopping as officials urged only those who needed to make essential trips to travel.

“The whole area will be quarantined for roughly one week,” state government spokesman Bhushan Gagrani said.

“The government is discouraging people (from travel). Those with a pressing need are allowed providing they are checked up properly,” said Gagrani. He said routes to the town were ‘totally regulated’.

Twelve people, who originally had mild fever, remained under observation while medics were on alert for symptoms among the 60,000 residents of the town and villages within 10 kilometres, Gagrani said.

In total, 202 samples from 174 people had been sent for testing, he said.

But a senior health official stressed that no human cases of bird flu had been confirmed in the country. And the 12 people under observation had not shown signs of the disease, official Deepak Gupta in New Delhi told reporters.

Another official, N. K. Ganguly, announced that all but one of the first batch of 95 samples collected from residents of the Navapur area had tested negative for avian influenza.

Tests on the single remaining sample were underway at the National Institute of Virology in western Pune city with the results to be available on Saturday, he said.

Meanwhile, officials in Navapur said they were stopping poultry workers from leaving town until they had been tested for bird flu.

Bus passengers were checked for signs of illness before they were allowed to cross checkpoints. They also discouraged people from attending weddings and other public events.—AFP