Macao today reported two imported and two local Influenza A (H1N1) cases, taking the total number of such cases to 60.

At a press conference at the Influenza Response and Coordination Centre, the Health Bureau announced that one of the confirmed local cases involved a 23-year-old staff of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who had contacted with two confirmed H1N1 patients to conduct epidemiology research.

The Bureau said that he had put on full protective gear when meeting the patients. Two other staff of CDC who led the two patients to the quarantine wards showed no signs of sickness.

The Bureau stressed that even the most stringent protective measures were employed, the virus could still spread rapidly.

It urged the close contact persons of confirmed patients to provide accurate information to the staff of CDC when phoned in order to minimise the necessity for face-to-face contacts.

The second local case involved a 45-year-old Macao citizen, who worked for the Legal Affairs Bureau. The patient’s husband was classified as a close contact person and was asked to stay home for medical observation.

Since the two patients had not left Macao in the preceding seven days, they were thus classified as locally infected cases.

The two imported cases involved two Macao citizens aged 14 and 48, who had been in the United Kingdom and Guangzhou in the preceding seven days respectively.

Meanwhile, one patient had recovered and was discharged from hospital today.

Currently 31 confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) patients were receiving treatment at the quarantine wards at Hospital Conde S. Januário, and 93 people were asked to stay home for medical observation.