New Delhi, July 24 - With the number of confirmed swine flu cases on the rise, India plans to soon stop mass testing and create buffer zones for human clusters infected by the influenza A (H1N1) virus to curb its spread -- the way it was done for poultry during the bird flu outbreak.

'You must have marked the growing number cases in India. The influenza-A situation is going to worsen in near future. The government has drawn plans for creating buffer zones soon,' a senior health ministry official told IANS here Friday.

'It was done for poultry during the bird flu outbreak (2006-09) and very soon infected human clusters will see similar situations. The plan is nothing but to curb the spread of the disease. In these zones, people will not be allowed to move out of the area and all other movement within three kilometres of the zone will be restricted.

'These people will not be sent to isolation wards of hospitals. The entire area will be quarantined and all people living in that infected cluster - whether positive or not - will be under medication,' said the officer, who can not be identified as he is not authorised to talk to media.

On Thursday, Indian reported 29 new cases of swine flu, largest so far in a single day, taking the total number of infected people to 371.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 700 people have died across the globe because of the disease and nearly 100,000 people have been found positive with swine flu.