China Isolates Passengers On Flu Suspect's Flight

China quarantined more than 130 of the 150 passengers aboard a flight that carried a Chinese man who was the mainland's first suspected case of H1N1 flu, the Xinhua news agency said Monday.

The 30-year-old man's girlfriend, father and a taxi driver had also been quarantined, said Xinhua, which cited officials at a press conference held in the provincial capital of Chengdu, in southwestern China.

The man took a Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis/St Paul which stopped in Tokyo and landed at Beijing. He also took a flight on Sichuan Airlines from Beijing to Chengdu.

It was not clear from the report which passengers were quarantined, although it said the man had developed symptoms of fever on the flight from Beijing to Chengdu.

The remaining passengers and others who came in contact with the man, who was studying in the state of Missouri in the United States, were being sought by authorities, said Xinhua.

The man had tested "weakly positive" to A/H1N1 virus twice by the Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and was conscious and in stable condition, it said.

On Saturday, a Mexican traveler confirmed as Hong Kong's first and only case of the new flu strain was discharged from hospital.