Govt confirms 2nd flu case, quarantine numbers swell

• Source: The Global Times
• [07:24 May 14 2009]
• Comments

Security guards count the names of people quarantined at the Home Inn in Beijing yesterday. Photo: Wu Gang.

By Qiu Wei and Guo Qiang

Hundreds are under quarantine or observation, and the search continues for dozens more who are believed to have come in contact with either of the two men on the mainland who have been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus.

The massive containment effort to curb the spread of the virus has been difficult, especially since many of the unaccounted for are foreigners without permanent homes in China.

Rather than assume its possible to track down every person who travels abroad or who may have come in contact with the virus, epidemiologists are suggesting that everyone traveling to the mainland from infected areas practice “self-isolation” for one week.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday that the second patient – a man surnamed LÜ – was “recovering with a normal body temperature” at a hospital in Jinan, the capital of eastern Shandong Province.

Passengers who sat between rows 32 and 38 on Friday’s Air Canada flight AC029, and those who traveled on the seventh carriage of Monday’s train D41 from Beijing to Jinan, are urged to report to authorities, the statement said.