The onslaught of the swine flu continued unabated with three persons, including a middle-aged woman, succumbing to the virus, pushing the countrywide death toll to 77 as 186 more contracted the infection since last evening.

The new fatalities occurred in Delhi, Bangalore and Pune as 41 more tested positive for A (HINI) influenze in the national capital where the number of cases climbed to 519.

In all, 186 fresh laboratory confirmed cases surfaced in various states as the number of those afflicted with the illness climbed to 3,095.

Usha Jain, who had tested positive for the flu and was on ventilator, passed away this morning in government-run RML Hospital in Delhi, Medical Superintendent N K Chaturvedi said.

Fortyfour-year-old Usha was a resident of Faridabad in Haryana.

In Bangalore, Siddarraju, admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases on August 21, died of the virus, health officials said adding he had also tested positive for chikungunya.

Swine flu fatalities rose to 24 in Pune, the worst-hit, with a 56-year-old man succumbing in a private hospital, Dr Ashok Laddha, Additional Director, Health, said.

Of the 77 deaths from the pandemic, Maharashtra accounts for 41 -- 24 in Pune, eight in Mumbai, five in Nashik, two in Aurangabad and one each in Dhule and Latur.

Fifteen people have died in Karnataka, seven in Gujarat, three each in Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Delhi and one each in Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Haryana.