Czech authorities began a mass vaccination programme against swine flu on Monday as the country found itself on the verge of a nationwide epidemic, a deputy minister said.

- Vaccination has started in some medical facilities. The others will follow by the end of the week - deputy health minister Marek Snajdr told reporters.

Czech doctors will get 95,000 Pandemrix vaccines from British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline this week and another 90,000 are scheduled to arrive after December 4, health minister Dana Juraskova said earlier.

The health ministry expects to vaccinate a total of more than a million doctors, people with health risks and those deemed as essential workers by the end of next April.

Four people have so far died of swine flu in the Czech Republic, a country with 10.3 million inhabitants.

The health ministry officially registers about 650 patients with swine flu but suspects thousands have contracted the virus.

Chief public health officer Michael Vit said the Czech Republic was on the verge of a flu epidemic.

- The epidemic will certainly come at the beginning of December - he added as the disease exceeded epidemic levels in three Czech regions and shuttered schools throughout the country.

More than 5,700 people have died worldwide since swine flu was first discovered in April, with most deaths in the Americas, according to the World Health Organisation.