China reports two more H1N1 flu cases in Beijing
BEIJING, May 23 (Reuters) - China reported two confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in Beijing late on Friday, bringing the total to seven nationwide, but officials in the Chinese capital city said the pandemic alert level will not be increased.
The two patients, both in their sixties, had returned to China from the United States and Canada recently, the health ministry said in statements posted on its website.
The first H1N1 patient in Beijing, a Chinese student studying in the United States, was discharged from hospital on Friday after six days of treatment, local media reported.
Beijing has not raised the alert level, because the four cases in Beijing so far bear no correlations, Deng Ying, director of Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying.
Dr. Margaret Chan, chief of the World Health Organization, warned on Friday the world must be ready for H1N1 swine flu to become more severe and kill more people.
The WHO is poised to declare a full pandemic of the virus, which has infected more than 11,000 people in 42 countries and killed 86. And U.S. health officials released $1 billion for companies to get started on a vaccine in case it is needed. (Reporting by Michael Wei and Tom Miles; Editing by Jerry Norton)
