Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 12 - With the first swine flu death in the state taking place at a private hospital late Tuesday night here, results of 40 more suspected cases are awaited from various parts of the state.

Speaking to IANS, Amar S. Fettle, nodal officer of the newly constituted H1N1 cell, said earlier the test result was available in six hours from Delhi but now with a lot of backlog, the waiting period was more than three days.

'As of today 56 positive cases in Kerala have been confirmed of which all but seven have got over the treatment protocols. We are now awaiting the results of 40 from the three regions of the state that were sent to Delhi. This increase is because more and more people are coming forward to test for swine flu,' said Fettle.

The state health department has classified the state into three regions for tackling swine flu. They include Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.