Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Faith Stratton, speaks with reporters on Tuesday.

Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer of health says most of the people who have been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms in the province this fall haven't tested positive for the pandemic strain of H1N1 influenza.

"We've had about 350 admitted to hospital so far and about 125 have been diagnosed with H1N1," Dr. Faith Stratton said. "So it's even less than half of them, actually."

That doesn't mean many more people in the province haven't contracted swine flu.

The precise number of Newfoundland and Labrador residents infected by the global H1N1 pandemic will probably never be known because the vast majority of people who are getting sick with flu-like symptoms are not being swabbed and laboratory tested for H1N1.

Stratton said most people with flu-like symptoms this year are experiencing only mild illnesses, and a patient must be seriously ill to be admitted to hospital.

The province is taking the pandemic very seriously, Stratton said. Of the roughly 125 hospitalized people confirmed to have contracted swine flu, five have died.

Immunization clinics were closed across the province Wednesday to observe Remembrance Day. They will reopen Thursday.