SOME parts of England have too many cases of swine flu to continue with a policy of containing the outbreak, the Government said today.

London and the West Midlands have sufficiently high numbers to move towards a policy of outbreak management, which will see people with swine flu clinically diagnosed rather than being confirmed by laboratory reports.

Swabbing will take place only for a small number of cases to keep track of the strength of the virus.

Doctors will also use the drug Tamiflu more selectively, targeting only those people with symptoms.

This means that anyone who has come into contact with somebody with swine flu will probably not receive the drug as a precaution.

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson stressed that many parts of the country were still in the containment phase.

Sir Liam said there could be tens of thousands of cases of swine flu each week by the autumn. The virus is more likely to thrive in the colder months.

So far 3,597 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the UK but the true figure is thought to be higher.

Efforts to contain the outbreak to date have taken up a lot of resources but have been successful, Sir Liam said.

But the Government had not envisaged that a policy of containment would last forever.