Since morning, people continued to queue up at the 15 H1N1 preliminary screening centres opened in the city Thursday, said S.R. Pardeshi, head of the Pune Municipal Corporation's health department.

'Even yesterday (Thursday), there were huge crowds at these centres, and people have started queuing up even today for precautionary tests,' he said.

Since the past few days Pune has virtually become a 'masked' city with people sporting face masks at home, in public and at work places too.

'In fact, at Pune railway station, a majority of the people alighting wear face masks and cover their mouths and noses with kerchiefs of different colours... blue, green, white or any other that is available in the market,' said Awate, who travelled here from Mumbai Friday morning by the Deccan Queen superfast train.