BY GERARD NAVAL

TWO South Korean children quarantined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang tested negative for the influenza A (H1N1) virus, the health department said yesterday. (For world updates, see Page B3)

The boys aged 9 and 12, who have been sent home, were among five individuals placed under observation in local medical facilities for manifesting flu-like symptoms when they arrived in the Philippines.

Results of tests for the three others were not yet available, said Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde.

The three are a 32-year-old Filipina from Ireland and a 26-year-old British male from United Kingdom, who are confined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu, and a 29-year-old Filipino male, from the United States, who is at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.

Villaverde said a 37-year-old Filipina from Canada was also brought to San Lazaro for showing flu-like symptoms.

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque has been saying the country remains free of the new virus which is now in 23 countries.

In Hong Kong, four Filipinos quarantined since May 1 at the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai are set for release today, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

The four are a Filipina who was billeted at the hotel with her son and her Australian husband; a Filipina from Cebu, and another Filipina.

Hong Kong’s Department of Health imposed the seven-day quarantine after a guest at the Metropark Hotel was confirmed as having contracted the virus.

The DFA also said there has been no reported case of overseas Filipinos contracting H1N1.

Congressmen who flew to Las Vegas for the Pacquiao-Hatton fight last weekend will undergo random testing, said Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Apart from Nograles, who was set to return yesterday, other congressmen who watched the fight were Al Francis Bichara (NP, Albay), Bienvenido Abante (Lakas, Manila) and Eric Singson (LP, Ilocos Norte).

But there were reportedly up to 50 congressmen who went abroad but did not ask for travel authority.

The education department, as part of precautionary measures, directed all schools to conduct a massive information drive on the nature and prevention of the new flu.