The country's health authorities say 70 patients are still hospitalized, 13 have been discharged.

 

　　As CRI's Su Yi reports, the World Health Organization says it is impressed with China's response to the H7N9 virus.

 

　　Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director general for health security and environment at the WHO, says China has been open and direct in information exchange and handlings of the virus.

 

　　"We were quite impressed with the direct discussions, the open exchange of information between our counterparts in Shanghai and ourselves. And on the basis of the discussions that we had, we really thought the response was at a very high level, that the actions were taken in a quick manner, they were done in a very professional manner and they reflected to us that the city had been really well prepared. It had good systems in place, it was well-prepared and acted very effectively."

 

　　Fukuda says the WHO is working with Chinese health authorities to examine the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

 

　　"You know, with small cases, small clusters, we know what the possibilities are. But it's often very hard to know definitively which it is. So again, I think that we have to be looking for person-to-person transmission. With other avian influenza viruses　we have seen you can have limited person-to-person transmission so that is always a possibility. But I think that it's fair to say right now, based on all of the available information, it is not clear why we have these small clusters here."

 

　　China confirmed the first human cases infected with the H7N9 virus late last month.

 

　　Both China's health authorities and the World Health Organization say China's confirmed cases are isolated and so far there has been no sign of human-to-human transmission.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Su Yi.