WELLINGTON, April 29 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Prime Minister John Key warned on Wednesday that the swine flu confirmations might have side-impact on New Zealand tourism.
He made his comment to reporters on Wednesday morning following the laboratory confirmation Tuesday night of three cases of swine flu and the Ministry of Health revealing that 179 people in New Zealand were in isolation.
Key, who also serves as tourism minister, said India had issued a travel warning and some Japanese tourists had canceled trips to New Zealand.
"It is important to put it in perspective," he said. "It is highly likely that most countries will have some outbreak of swine flu."
New Zealand was handling it well and had high stocks of Tamiflu.
"But obviously it is of concern to us that there could be a side-impact on tourism here in New Zealand," he said.
Key said he understood that India had issued a travel warning on a large number of countries, including the United States, Canada and Britain.
New Zealand is the sixth country in the world to have confirmed cases of the virus.
On Wednesday morning, health officials announced 14 cases of influenza A had been confirmed in the Auckland region, including the three people who had the new swine flu strain of influenza A.
Twelve of the influenza A cases are from a 25-person Rangitoto College group which returned from Mexico on Saturday.
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