Another 34 students were confirmed as having contracted A/H1N1 influenza at two Chinese schools, health authorities said Friday.

Half of the new cases were reported at the Experimental High School in Lixin County, of the eastern Anhui Province, the provincial health department said in a statement.

It said the patients, all students, were being treated at the county hospital. "They were all in stable condition and none of the cases was life-threatening."

The school announced a seven-day break starting Friday and quarantined those who had been in close contact with the confirmed patients. All other students had been told to stay home for observation.

Another 17 cases were reported at a technical school in Zhengzhou, capital of the central Henan Province, the local health authority confirmed early Friday.

Some students began showing symptoms of fever and coughing Wednesday at Zhengzhou Commercial Technician Institute, and the provincial health department sent a medical team to the campus. Seventeen were diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu on Thursday night.

The number of confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases on Chinese campuses has been growing since the fall semester started Tuesday.

As of Thursday, 16 cases had been confirmed at Qianjiang College of Zhejiang Normal University, in the eastern Zhejiang Province.

In southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, six students at Fangcheng Experimental High School, in Fangchenggang City, have been confirmed as having contracted A/H1N1 flu.

Meanwhile, the number of cases at a civil aviation college in the southwestern Sichuan Province rose to 35 Thursday.

There have been another eight cases of the flu confirmed at a college in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province.

On Thursday, 31 of 109 patients from the No. 3 Senior Middle School in Xin'an County in central China's Henan Province left hospital, a provincial government official said. The remainder of the quarantined patients were stable.

Schools and kindergartens across China have stepped up health checks for students and teachers this week.

In Beijing, school children are requested to report their temperatures on daily basis.

The Beijing municipal government will begin to offer flu vaccinations in September and complete its program in late October. Free vaccinations will be provided to 1.8 million residents aged 60 or older as well as all primary and middle school students.

China on Thursday approved the A/H1N1 flu vaccine called Pan flu. 1, produced by domestic pharmaceutical company Sinovac, making it the first to get a production license in the global race.

The vaccine passed evaluation by experts of the State Food and Drug Administration on August 31.

The country had reported 3,981 A/H1N1 cases as of 3:00 PM Wednesday, the last time the national figure was updated. Of them, 3,391 had recovered and no deaths were reported.

Globally, the disease has killed about 2,000 people and infected more than 180,000. It has spread to more than 170 countries.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2009)