SWINE flu forced a NSW hospital to close its doors to new patients yesterday as Premier Nathan Rees moved to reassure the public after an outbreak of the flu at a piggery.

An outbreak of H1N1 at Bellingen Hospital on the mid-north coast forced it to refuse new patients this weekend. Margaret Bennett, from the Health Department’s Coffs-Clarence Network, said seven staff had fallen ill with flu symptoms since a patient tested positive on July 24.

‘‘The hospital is operating normally in terms of people reporting to the emergency department and our care for current in-patients,’’ she said.

‘‘This weekend we’re diverting new patients to either Coffs Harbour or Macksville.’’

Mr Rees said there was no danger of catching swine flu from eating pork products despite a Dunedoo piggery being quarantined. The outbreak is the first human-to-pig transmission of flu in Australia.

Tests confirmed the pigs had influenza A H1, which is different to the human swine flu virus.

By Friday 21,668 people were known to have contracted swine flu, of whom 61 had died. On Friday, a 70-year-old woman, who had other health problems, became the 22nd person in NSW to die from it.