Two Macao residents were confirmed to have been infected with the A/H1N1 influenza, bringing the total cases to three in just three days, Macao's Health Bureau said on Saturday.

The two local patients, a 27-year-old air hostess and 54-year-old man, have been quarantined in local hospital and their conditions have remained stable so far, according to the Health Bureau.

The air hostess traveled outside Macao several times between June 6 and 17, and she showed flu symptoms after flying back to Macao from Tokyo on June 17. The male patient, having been to Toronto, fell sick as he returned to Macao via neighboring Hong Kong in the same day. Both of them tested positive for the virus.

Macao's first confirmed case concerned a Philippine man who flew to Macao from Manila. He was transferred to local hospital after being found having fever at the airport checkpoint. The Health Bureau later announced that he was infected with the A/H1N1 flu, and had him quarantined.

The Health Bureau has said that 30 passengers that took seats near the Philippine man on the plane have been deemed as having close contact with the patient, and 24 of theses passengers have been located by the authorities, while three of them have left Macao and six others still cannot be contacted.

More of such cases will be detected in Macao in the future given the current situation of the epidemic around the world, said Ho Hau Wah, the chief executive of the Special Administrative Region (SAR), in a previous occasion.

Local educational authorities have also said that they will suspend class in local primary and secondary schools once the situation gets worse.

The government of the Macao SAR previously announced that they have ordered one million doses of A/H1N1 flu vaccines, the first batch of which will be delivered to Macao in September this year, and local high-risk group, including children, old people and patients with chronic illness, will be firstly inoculated.

So far over 500 confirmed cases have been reported in Macao's neighboring regions Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese mainland.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2009)