The Chinese mainland confirmed 1,598 new cases of A/H1N1 influenza in the 72 hours ending 3 p.m. Monday, bringing the total number to 9,103, the Ministry of Health said.

Among the newly confirmed cases, only 14 were "imported cases" while the remaining 1584 had been contracted on the Chinese mainland, the ministry said.

Of the total cases of A/H1N1 reported so far, 5,350 recovered, the ministry said. So far there have been no deaths from the flu reported in China.

Last Friday, the ministry said the flu was spreading from cities to rural areas and from coastal provinces to inland.

Liang Wannian, deputy director of the ministry's health emergency office, said domestic cases had made up the majority of new infections instead of imported cases, and cases of large-scale group infection replaced isolated ones.

All 31 provincial areas on the Chinese mainland have now reported A/H1N1 cases.

Last Thursday, the State Council, or the Cabinet, issued an edict to step up the campaign against the flu. It promised to take effective measures such as free vaccination and allowing flexible work hours.

Beijing started last Wednesday vaccinating about 1.8 million residents aged 60 years and above and students at primary and middle schools.

The Chinese mainland reported its first critical case of A/H1N1on Aug. 13. The case involved a 17-year-old high school student in the southern province of Guangdong who had been in a coma for about a week at the time.

He was later diagnosed with a rare genetic disease named Brugada Syndrome, which was believed to have led to his critical condition, his doctors said.

On July 1, an infected patient in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, reportedly died of electrocution in a ward lavatory. The death was thought to have been caused by a faulty electrical circuit.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2009)