About two dozen local students on a program to China are being quarantined in a Beijing hotel after as many as four were hospitalized with symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus.
Twenty-two students from several D.C. and Maryland high schools arrived in Beijing on July 14 to begin an intensive summer language course through the University of Maryland’s Confucius Institute and its Chinese partner Hanban.
After landing, one boy was hospitalized with flu symptoms while the rest of the group was ordered into confinement in a hotel.
Soon after, three more students displayed similar symptoms and were hospitalized.
Alan Cheung, the Confucius Institute’s executive director, did not know the exact condition of the hospitalized students, but said they were “soon to be discharged,” and all 22 are to be transferred to a five-star hotel in Beijing.
The students will be able to continue their course in China beyond the original July 30 program end date at no extra charge to make up for the lost time.
Since the swine flu began spreading across the globe in the spring, multiple groups of Washington-area students have been quarantined in China, which has one of the world’s most aggressive swine flu prevention policies.
But rarely have students been hospitalized for exhibiting flu symptoms.
On Monday, a group of Maryland volleyball players was released from a Beijing hotel after spending more than three days there following the swine flu diagnosis of a fellow airplane passenger.
In late May, 21 students from the Barrie School in Silver Spring were confined to a hotel in Kaili, China, for five days after someone on their flight reportedly caught the virus.
“Before the group deplaned, technicians with white coats and masks carrying gadgets to detect temperature checked every person,” Cheung said, describing China’s airport health inspection procedure for all passengers arriving from the United States.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson estimated that 1,800 Americans have been quarantined in China since early May and roughly 200 have tested positive for swine flu.
