Health authorities in south China's Guangdong Province said Thursday they would release China's third confirmed A/H1N1 flu case Friday.

The Guangdong Provincial Health Department said Yang, who had been treated at the No. 8 People's Hospital of Guangzhou since May15, has made a full recovery.

Yin Chibiao, deputy president of the No.8 People's Hospital of Guangzhou, told Xinhua Thursday that Yang was negative for the A/H1N1 flu virus in two separate tests conducted Wednesday and Thursday, which means he has met requirements set by the Chinese Health Ministry for discharge.

Yin added his hospital planned to carry out another test on Yang before he is released Friday.

Local health authorities in Guangdong have reached 90 of the 93 people who were exposed to Yang and put them under quarantine. They have not shown any flu symptoms and will also be released late Friday.

China now has five confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 influenza: one in Chengdu, Sichuan Province; one in Jinan, Shandong Province; one in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province; and two in Beijing. All five contracted the virus overseas and developed the flu shortly after arriving in the Chinese mainland.

Both Bao, in Chengdu, who was the first confirmed case on the Chinese mainland, and Lu, in Jinan, who was the second case, have fully recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

The fourth patient, surnamed Liu, who has been receiving treatment at Ditan Hospital in Beijing, is still recovering. Medical workers at Ditan Hospital expect her to be discharged soon.

The mainland's fifth confirmed patient, Yang, is also recovering at Beijing's Ditan Hospital.

A doctor, surnamed Wu, said he had a temperature of 37.6 Celsius as of 3 p.m. Thursday, compared to 39.1 degrees at the time he was sent to the hospital Wednesday.

Wu also said Yang's appetite had returned.

"He had one steamed meat bun, one steam twisted roll, one boiled egg, plus a bow of millet porridge for breakfast and he finished them all," said Wu.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2009)