The first vaccines for the A/H1N1 swine flu will be available for the highest risk groups in England from next week, the U.K.'s Department of Health said Thursday as it announced another modest increase in the number of new cases of the virus.

Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, said 415,000 doses of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's (GSK) Pandemrix would be delivered to acute hospitals from Oct. 21 to target very high-risk patients and front-line health care workers.

From Oct. 26 more than 4 million doses of Pandemrix would be delivered to local doctors surgeries and other healthcare centers along with almost 50,000 doses of Baxter International Inc.'s (BAX) Celvapan. Priority will be given to people in seasonal flu risk groups, including pregnant women.

Donaldson said the government's Health Protection Agency estimated there were 27,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, up from 18,000 the previous week and 14,000 the week before that.

Although the number of new cases per week remains well below the weekly peak of 110,000 in July, the number of deaths attributed to swine flu in the U.K. has risen to 106 from 90 last week. The U.K. total includes 83 in England, 15 in Scotland, four in Northern Ireland, and four in Wales.

Donaldson said he was concerned the proportion of hospitalized swine flu patients in critical care had risen to about 20% from 12% previously.

-By Nicholas Winning, Dow Jones Newswires, +44 207 842 9498; nick.winning@dowjones.com