BEIJING, May 17 (Reuters) - Mainland China has confirmed its third case of H1NI flu and its first in the capital, Beijing, the same day it released nearly 300 people from quarantine with a clean bill of health.

The Beijing case, announced late on Saturday, is an 18-year-old female who has been studying in New York state, the Health Ministry said.

She was a stable condition with normal temperature, the ministry said.

She arrived in Beijing on May 11 on board a U.S. flight, Xinhua news agency said, and was transferred to the Beijing Ditan Hospital early in the morning on May 15.

According to Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, Liu had only contacted two people, her mother and a taxi driver. Neither had shown flu symptoms.

Turkey and India confirmed their first cases of H1N1 flu on Saturday, all involving airline passengers arriving from the United States. [nN16312938]

Thirty-eight countries have now confirmed cases of the flu strain, a mix of swine, human and avian viruses, which last month prompted the World Heath Organization to raise its global pandemic alert level to 5 on a 6-point scale.

The first two cases in mainland China are Chinese nationals who had been studying in the United States and Canada. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has confirmed two cases.

China on Saturday released 282 people from quarantine in Beijing and the southwestern province of Sichuan.

(Reporting by Nick Macfie; Editing by David Fox)

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