The FINANCIAL — According to RIA Novosti, the death toll from a flu outbreak in Ukraine has risen to 155, the country's Health Ministry said.
According to the ministry's report late on Sunday, most of the dead were from the western Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk regions.
Earlier on November 8, 144 people were reported to have died from flu across the country.
The ministry has confirmed the death of 14 people from swine flu and 32 swine flu cases in the country.
On November 9, Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko asked World Health Organization (WHO) experts to provide swine flu vaccines to Ukraine. A WHO team is currently working in the former Soviet republic.
The Ukrainian government imposed quarantines in nine western provinces in late October in an attempt to curb the spread of flu. All education establishments in the capital, Kiev, were closed, and people were obliged to wear medical masks in all catering establishments, shops and social services facilities across the country.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko earlier requested help from other countries over the flu outbreak.
A senior presidential official Ihor Popov earlier said Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) was expected to convene on Monday to discuss the situation. He said the council would consider declaring a state of emergency, which could delay the presidential polls scheduled on January 17, 2010 until May.
However, Tymoshenko said on November 7 she saw no need to declare a state of emergency in the country over a flu epidemic.
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