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Japanese health officials reported four confirmed cases and Tawian two cases of the A/H1N1 virus stemming from overseas flights, while Australia reported its first case but said the victim has recovered and is no longer contagious.
China, meanwhile, reported its first suspected case on the mainland, involving a Chinese man returning from studying at a U.S. university, the Associated Press reported.
The reports came as health officials around the world continueto track the spread of the virus, though urgency has ebbed in recent days because of the small number of deaths the disease has caused. The World Health Organization on Sunday said 49 people have died -- 45 of them in Mexico, two in the U.S. and one each in Canada and Costa Rica. The AP on Saturday reported a third death in the U.S., of a man in Washington state.
The Costa Rican death, reported Saturday, marked the first outside Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Those who died in the U.S. and Costa Rica over the weekend suffered from other ailments as well, the AP reported.
Overall, health officials around the world have confirmed 4,379 cases, the WHO said, though thousands of other cases are suspected.
In Taiwan, Health Minister Ching-chuan Yeh said the island's two cases flew in from the U.S. on May 5. Nine other people are being monitored.
China's health ministry identified the suspected mainland patient on Sunday night as a 30-year-old student surnamed Bao, who had been studying at an unspecified U.S. school, according to the AP. The ministry said he began experiencing symptoms on a flight from Beijing to Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, after flights that began in St. Louis, Mo., Thursday, and also took him through St. Paul, Minn., and Tokyo.
Health officials in Asia remained on alert, though officials in Hong Kong and China have eased quarantines over the past few days. Hong Kong officials on Friday lifted a quarantine that had kept nearly 300 guests and employees in a hotel for a week, while Chinese officials Friday finished releasing passengers who had been on a flight with a Mexican national carrying the flu virus.
Japanese officials on Saturday said two teenage students and a man in his 40s were confirmed to be infected with the flu strain after flying from Ontario, Canada, on a Northwest Airlines flight that landed in Tokyo Friday afternoon. On Sunday, government-run broadcaster NHK said a third student also tested positive for the virus.
The other 49 people seated nearby on the same plane have been isolated for a 10-day doctor observation period, said Yoichi Masuzoe, Japan's health minister.
Taiwanese officials said 16 people from Taiwan who had been on the flight tested negative for the disease. They had been under self-quarantine until noon Sunday, they said.
In Australia on Saturday, health officials said a person in Queensland who had been traveling in the U.S. had come down with the disease but had fully recovered.
Hong Kong officials Friday deemed their quarantine of 286 guests and employees in the Wanchai Metropark Hotel a success, citing the lack of any known flu transmissions during the quarantine. Hong Kong has reported one case. Some health experts and a number of the guests have criticized the effort as unnecessary and ineffective.
Elsewhere in Asia, New Zealand has confirmed seven cases, while South Korea has confirmed three.
