China had lifted 282 people, who were quarantined for close contact with the two A/H1N1 flu patients, out of medical observation in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Beijing on Saturday, as the country's infection cases rises to three, local authorities said.

Among the 126 people who had exposure to the A/H1N1 patient surnamed Bao, 123 had been released from a Hotel in Longquanyi District of Chengdu on Friday, capital of Sichuan, said He Jun, spokesman for Chengdu Municipal Health Bureau.

The three remained in the hotel are father, girlfriend and the taxi driver of Bao and they will be released on Sunday if they show no flu symptoms, He said.

Beijing lifted another 159 people out of quarantine on Saturday, said the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.

However, local government began to search 10 more people who had close contact with the A/H1N1 flu patient in east China's Shandong Province with offers of cash rewards on Saturday, said the Jinan Municipal Government.

In a move to encourage people to report information, a deputy director of the Jinan municipal health bureau, Ma Jiren, handed over 2,000 yuan to a policeman working at the local police call center Saturday.

Even the 10 people could receive the 2,000-yuan (US$293) reward if they report themselves to the local government.

The flu case in Shandong, the second known case on the Chinese mainland, involved a 19-year-old patient surnamed Lu who arrived in Beijing from Canada May 8 flight AC029 and traveled to Jinan by train three days later.

Forty-six people on the train were considered to have close contact with Lu, among whom 36 have been found and were under medical observation while the other 10 could not be identified or reached.

Ministry of Health announced on Saturday evening that one more confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu was reported in Beijing, the third confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu on the Chinese mainland.

The case involved a 18-year-old female who studies in a university in the New York State of the United States, which was the one reported previously as suspected case by the Emergency Management Office of Beijing Municipal Government Saturday evening.

The first two were Chinese nationals, Bao and Lu, who had been students in the United States and Canada, and were traveling back to their homes in the past days of the month, contracted the flu strain and developed symptoms shortly after they set foot in China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2009)