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Several Chinese passengers from the Mexico City-Shanghai flight AM098, where a Mexican man was confirmed to be infected with influenza A/H1N1, walk out of the hotel as the quarantine ends in Shanghai, east China, May 7, 2009. Chinese health authorities on Thursday started lifting a seven-day quarantine on passengers who took the same flight with the Mexican man.[Xinhua/Li Wen]
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In Shanghai, 32 quarantined passengers from the flu-infected flight left the hotel Thursday morning. Another group of 39 people, who were on the flight MU505 with the flu-infected Mexican to Hong Kong, will end the quarantine in the hotel in the afternoon, according to the Shanghai health authority.
The Beijing Disease Control Center confirmed that 16 quarantined people will end the flu quarantine Thursday, of which nine were from the Mexican flight.
One of the passengers, surnamed Wen, told Xinhua over phone Thursday morning that she was on her way home.
"Each of us has been given a notice with the health bureau's seal to verify that we've passed the medical quarantine. My employer sent a car to take me home," she said.
She said the notice is important to prove her health is good so that she would not face prejudice from her colleagues after returning to work.
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A Chinese passenger (L) from the Mexico City-Shanghai flight AM098, where a Mexican man was confirmed to be infected with influenza A/H1N1, receives flowers and a letter as the quarantine ends in Shanghai, east China, May 7, 2009. Chinese health authorities on Thursday started lifting a seven-day quarantine on passengers who took the same flight with the Mexican man.[Xinhua/Li Wen]
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He Xiong, deputy director of the disease control center, said that there are 51 people still under quarantine in Beijing.
"They were either under health check at hospital or staying in an isolated hotel. None of their saliva sample tested positive for the flu virus," said He.
The Ministry of Health on Wednesday notified local health authorities that the passengers quarantined in the Chinese mainland who took the same flight with the Mexican will be out of quarantine on Thursday, if they display no flu-like symptoms.
The passengers are now scattered in nearly 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland.
None of them had yet showed any flu-like symptoms as of midnight Wednesday, according to the ministry.
The country of 1.3 billion people has mobilized several governmental sectors including ministries of Health, Agriculture, Foreign Affairs and China Center for Disease Control to be engaged in prevention of the influenza's outbreak.
The State Council, China's Cabinet, has added 5 billion yuan (725 million U.S. dollars) for flu prevention and control work to nationwide health education campaigns about the virus.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2009)
