Madrid: Spain has detected 11 cases of swine flu at a military academy outside Madrid and the country's overall total now stands at 126, officials said on Friday.
A further 57 soldiers are under observation at the academy, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.
The Heath Ministry said school children were allowed to visit the academy earlier this week for field trips, even after suspicion of an outbreak had emerged.
But Fernandez de la Vega denied the health and defense ministries had failed to coordinate with each other, or withheld information from the public.
She said the new cases were only confirmed Friday. All the confirmed and suspected cases at the academy are mild. Of the 11 cases, nine of those people are hospitalised.
"There is no reason for alarm," she told a news conference after a regularly scheduled Cabinet meeting.
She described 57 people at the base as being under observation, rather than quarantined as the health ministry had said earlier.
The academy houses a military engineering school and is located in Hoyo de Manzanares, about 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Madrid.