Beijing reports first case of H7N9(2)

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Zhong said the city government has set up a headquarters to lead efforts in stemming the spread of the disease and also ordered increased supervision over high-risk groups. Fifty-five labs are being used to screen flu cases citywide.

The Beijing Drug Administration has been ordered to stock up on medication, including enough Tamiflu for 2 million people.

The first infection in Beijing has prompted local authorities to announce strict closures of all live poultry markets and a ban on live poultry trading. Carrier pigeon hobbyists have been ordered to cage their birds and agricultural and forestry authorities will increase supervision over wild birds.

Authorities have slaughtered 503 domestic fowl raised by 51 households and ordered the caging of 2,700 carrier pigeons in the village where the family of three lives.

The family moved to the village in Shunyi on April 2 to run a live poultry trading booth. They bought 75 chickens and sold 73, with more than half going to local villagers, and cooked the remaining two to eat themselves. The child's father halted the business on April 6 after learning about the H7N9 infections in southeast China.

The father bought the chickens from a trader from Tianjin, a city located some 120 km south of Beijing. The Shunyi district government has notified Tianjin health authorities about the case, the Shunyi publicity department said.

Tests of 156 samples collected from the culled birds found no H7N9 virus, said Wang Bin, head of the veterinary department under the municipal bureau of agriculture.

Authorities have yet to order the massive slaughter of birds across the city, as no H7N9 infections were detected in more than 5,600 samples collected from domestic and wild birds, said Liu Yaqing, deputy director of the agricultural bureau.

Beijing, however, faces further risks, as migratory birds are flying back to north China and it is possible for people to become infected outside of the city, said Deng Ying, head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schools in Beijing have been ordered to boost daily temperature check-ups and report possible cases to education authorities within one hour of their discovery. Students and teachers have been ordered to refrain from coming to school and to seek out medical treatment if they develop symptoms.

Four people in the provinces of Hebei, Hainan and Heilongjiang have been held or fined by police for spreading online rumors about the virus, local police said Saturday.

A drug store in Hunan Province is being investigated by local authorities for spreading similar rumors in order to boost sales.

Special report: H7N9 avian influenza