CHARTERED FLIGHT

In light of the plight of around 200 Chinese citizens still stranded in Mexico, center of the flu outbreak, the government sent a chartered flight late Monday to pick them up.

The plane left Guangzhou for Mexico City and Tijuana at 10 p.m. and is expected to return to Shanghai at 9 a.m. Wednesday, China Southern Airlines said.

The 17-strong crew have been trained on precautions against the flu and dealing with any health emergencies.

A quarantine expert from the Ministry of Health and doctors from the airline would closely monitor the health conditions of the passengers.

If any passengers developed symptoms like fever, all the passengers and flight crew would probably be quarantined after returning to China, sources with the airline told Xinhua.

China suspended flights from Mexico to Shanghai starting Saturday after a 25-year-old Mexican man, who arrived in Shanghai Thursday aboard flight Aeromexico 098, was later diagnosed with influenza A/H1N1 in Hong Kong.

The Mexican became Hong Kong's first confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1 infection Friday. It was also the first such case in Asia.

China Monday cancelled a chartered flight to Mexico to pick up 120 or so stranded passengers. The airline said another 80 Chinese citizens have requested to take the expected chartered flight back to the country.

NO DISCRIMINATION, CHINA SAYS

Monday's take-off of Chinese plane has been a result of a bilateral agreement between the governments, which allows both to send chartered flights to each other's country to lift their stranded nationals.

The agreement was reached even after diplomatic disputes whether China has taken discriminatory measures against Mexican citizens.

Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa Cantellano has complained China's quarantine of some Mexican citizens with no symptoms of the virus was discriminatory and short of scientific evidence. He also reminded Mexican citizens not to travel to China until it corrected the discriminatory measures.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said on Monday that the country's medical quarantine of some passengers who had traveled on the same flight with the Mexican man who was infected with influenza A/H1N1 as necessary.

"The measures concerned are not targeted at Mexican citizens and there is no discrimination," he said in a press release. "This is purely a medical quarantine issue."

Ma said China hoped Mexico would be understanding of the measures adopted by China and handle this matter objectively and calmly given the overall situation of jointly addressing the epidemic.

He also said China and Mexico are friendly countries and China attaches great importance to diplomatic relations with Mexico.

"China is willing to enhance cooperation with Mexico and make joint efforts to combat the epidemic situation," said Ma.

All the 176 passengers and 13 crew aboard have been located and those who remained in China have been quarantined, including Mexicans.

MORE INSPECTION TEAMS

In another move to contain the epidemic, the government has stepped up checks on people entering the country by sending another six supervision teams to major provinces to prevent influenza A/H1N1 from spreading to the country, the top quality supervisor said Monday.

These teams went to provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei and Shaanxi and would work together with local authorities, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ).

GAQSIQ required all people entering China by air, land and sea to fill in personal health statement cards to strength control efforts.

The 6 teams were in addition to the previous 5 teams going to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on April 25.

Also on Monday, the Ministry of Health said it had listed A/H1N1 under the category of infectious diseases that warranted quarantine, and would quarantine people and material crossing China's borders that were suspected of transmitting the virus.

(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2009)