MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Twenty-three more people, including students, fell ill with Influenza A(H1N1), bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases of the disease to 77, the Department of Health (DoH) said Wednesday.

Of the 77 cases, 23 are students in Metro Manila – 15 from the De La Salle University (DLSU), three from the Ateneo High School, two each from the College of St. Benilde and the East Asia College-Far Eastern University, and one from the St. Andrew School, the DoH said.

The DoH could not immediately say how many of the 23 new cases are students.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III maintained that there was no cause for alarm since the A(H1N1) cases were “mild” and the infections were traced to persons who traveled from countries with confirmed cases of the disease.

The 23 new cases include 19 Filipinos and four foreigners, aged eight to 49 years old, who came from the United States and Japan.

Health undersecretary Mario Villaverde said it was up to school officials to decide whether or not to postpone the opening of classes in the college level on Monday, which had been delayed for a week.

“The postponement of classes until Monday is their [schools’] own decision… We can't continue postponing classes since the flu transmission won't stop--it will be impossible to predict when it will stop,” Villaverde said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque urged school authorities to continue reporting students with flu symptoms, especially those who came from abroad.

Aside from the 77 confirmed cases, the DoH has 68 suspected A(H1N1) cases under observation, 85 suspected cases have pending laboratory cases, while 505 were cleared of the disease.