BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Two more H7N9 cases have been reported tonight, one in southeast China’s Fujian Province and one in North China’s Shandong Province. The two cases bring the total number of infections on the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan to 126.

The new cases include an 80-year-old farmer from Fujian who is now in serious condition. 33 people have had close contact with the patient. The other case is a 4 year-old boy from Shandong. The province’s first confirmed case was the boy’s father.

So far, 23 people have died of the virus nationwide. Cases have been reported in 10 provinces on the Chinese mainland, and one in Taiwan. Chinese medical experts have published new major findings on the flu strain in the international medical journal, the Lancet.

The research paper says transmission from poultry to humans has now been clinically proven. It reports that some gene segments of the strain have mutated, and warns that further mutations could result in easy human-to-human transmission.

(Source: CNTV.cn)