BEIJING - DOZENS of American high school students were quarantined in central China after some were diagnosed with H1N1 flu, the government said on Wednesday. In New Zealand, the Roman Catholic Church placed restrictions on communion to stop the spread of the virus.

A group of 42 American high school students and teachers was quarantined last Thursday in Yichang city in central Hubei province, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Seven people in the group who tested positive for swine flu were hospitalised in stable condition, said a man who answered the phone at the Yichang command centre for H1N1 flu. The total number of cases on the mainland rose to 237, but no deaths have occurred, the Health Ministry said.

Chinese authorities have been enforcing quarantines and temperature checks at airports throughout the country, but Zeng Guang, China's top epidemiologist, of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Xinhua that China may change its control and prevention measures to be more scientific, specific and cost effective. He did not give details.

The virus continued to spread across the region. In New Zealand, the Roman Catholic Church imposed a ban on priests placing communion wafers on the tongues of worshippers and on the sharing of communion wine. It also asked parishioners to avoid bodily contact at services, including shaking hands. The country reported 28 new cases of swine flu on Wednesday, bringing its total to 127.

In Malaysia, the Health Ministry said it has detected the country's first domestic transmission of swine flu in a 17-year-old girl, bringing the total number of cases to 23. She is believed to have caught the virus from another teenager earlier confirmed to have swine flu after returning from Australia.

In the Philippines, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the number of swine flu cases has reached 311, but he has no plans to declare a public health emergency because all the cases have been mild and no one has died.

Australia said it would begin using a new, more moerate H1N1 flu response plan starting Wednesday, with health officials saying the virus was not as severe as initially feared, despite its rapid spread through the country. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the country's pandemic alert level, currently at 'contain', would move to a newly created 'protect' level, which focuses less on trying to keep infected people out of Australia and more on identifying and treating those hit hardest by the virus.

Although most of the more than 1,200 cases of the virus in Australia have been mild, three people are currently hospitalised in intensive care, she said.

The World Health Organisation has warned countries to prepare for a second wave of infections once their outbreaks have peaked, saying the virus could mutate.

Thailand's Public Health Ministry confirmed 95 new cases of H1N1 flu, bringing the country's total to 405 cases. -- AP