China quarantines U.S. school group over flu concerns --FYI

China quarantines U.S. school group over flu concerns

* Story Highlights
* Group from Maryland private school confined to hotel room, school official says
* Students, teachers had been on plane with passenger suspected of swine flu
* Quarantine set to end Friday; group to return to U.S. over weekend

(CNN) -- A group of students and teachers from a Maryland private school have been quarantined in China because of swine flu concerns, a school spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Chinese government has confined 21 students and three teachers to their hotel rooms in Kaili, China, because a passenger on their plane to China was suspected of having swine flu, or H1N1, said Vicky Temple, director of communications for the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Temple said the students and teachers are occupying two floors of a four-star hotel in the Guizhou province city in southern China.

The quarantine will end Friday, and the students are scheduled to return to the United States on Sunday, Temple said.

China\'s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the Guizhou province\'s health bureau announced this week that it had discovered two dozen Americans who had been within four rows of the suspected swine flu case on the plane.

The plane had departed Friday from San Francisco, California.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a Thursday afternoon briefing that he was aware of the report but said he didn\'t have any details on the circumstances or what the U.S. officials might be doing about it.

All AboutSwine Flu 8226; China