Lucknow, March 5 (IANS): With the death of two more persons, including a Congress leader, the toll due to swine flu in Uttar Pradesh rose to 16, health officials said on Thursday.

Officials said a senior district Congress functionary, Kapoor Chandra Sonkar, died of the swine flu infection on late Wednesday.

Also, 55 new cases have been reported in the state capital since Wednesday, while the number of H1N1 infected patients in the city alone has crossed 608, doctors said.

Panic has set in many higher education institutes here with some cases of swine flu reported from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and the King George's Medical University (KGMU).

At many institutes, a long holiday which will go on for a week after the Holi break has been announced, an official told IANS as doctors advised that the onset of summers will kill the virus.

But a drop in the mercury accompanied with heavy rains and cold breeze has given the swine flu virus a new life.

With many events such as Holi on Friday, officials fear the H1N1 virus may infect more people in the coming days.