A 21-month-old Chinese baby was confirmed as mainland China's eighth swine flu patient yesterday just as three other suspected cases emerged elsewhere in the country, the health ministry said.
The baby girl flew with her parents to Fuzhou, capital of the southeastern province of Fujian, from New York via Hong Kong on May 20, the ministry reported on its website.
Her parents and the taxi driver who picked them up at the airport were under medical observation, and of the 38 people who were near her in the plane from Hong Kong, 30 had already been found and the other eight had left the country.
The girl developed a high fever on May 21 and was quarantined in hospital, the ministry said. She was now in a stable condition and her temperature had returned to normal.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old boy in Zhejiang province who flew from New York to Wenzhou city via Shanghai on May 22 was reported as a suspected case.
The boy, who was not identified, fell ill on the day he arrived in Wenzhou and went to the hospital on May 23, but was currently showing signs of recovery.
In Shanghai, a 30-year-old man who arrived from Melbourne in Australia Saturday was diagnosed with a high fever at the airport, sent to hospital where he was quarantined, and also reported as a suspect A(H1N1) influenza case, the ministry said.