SA Health said this afternoon that the number of confirmed swine flu cases in South Australia was 34. Three people who have tested positive for the virus are in hospital.

Two patients at Flinders Medical Centre are stable, and a 48-year-old man at the Royal Adelaide Hospital has swine flu but is in hospital with a serious condition unrelated to swine flu.

A Year 8 pupil from Salisbury High School is among those who have tested positive for the virus and as a precaution, relevant classes at the school have been cancelled. Students from the classes have been asked to remain in home isolation for seven days.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said today that Australia would not follow the lead of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on swine flu and will remain at existing alert levels.

She said the move by the WHO to rate the A(H1N1) virus as a "pandemic", the highest of its six levels, did not mean Australia had to follow suit.

Ms Roxon said health officials met this morning and decided to remain on the "contain" level except for Victoria, which is at "modified sustain".

She said the pandemic level did not reflect the severity of the disease and the WHO director general had made it clear that in the vast majority of cases swine flu would continue to have a mild effect.

"We believe we can continue with our targeted effort to treat those most at risk in Victoria and to continue to try and delay the community spread in those jurisdictions where there are not large numbers of cases," Ms Roxon told reporters in Melbourne.

That will continue to be reassessed on a daily basis, she said.

There are now 1,336 cases of swine flu in Australia, with 1,011 of those in Victoria, 115 in NSW, 77 in Queensland, 43 in Western Australia, 35 in the ACT, 31 in South Australia, 13 in Tasmania, and 11 in the Northern Territory.

Four people remain in intensive care in Victorian hospitals while one person in Tasmania and one person in South Australia have also been hospitalised, but are not in intensive care.

Ms Roxon would not give any further details of their condition.

Members of the public who want more information about swine flu should contact the Swine Flu Hotline on 180 2007 or visit www.flu.sa.gov.au