TAIPEI - Taiwan Monday cleared of swine flu a woman and her baby daughter who had been quarantined as the island's first suspected cases of the illness after returning from the United States.

"The final results showed that the woman and her daughter aged a year and nine months tested negative," the Department of Health said in a statement.

"They were cleared of the H1N1 disease," it said, without elaborating.

The terse statement came only hours after Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan told a midnight press conference that, although final results were still being awaited, "we're almost sure" the two cases would be confirmed as swine flu.

The duo, who returned from the United States Tuesday, have been sent to the Hoping Hospital for isolation and treatment, Yeh told the briefing.

The woman "started to show the symptoms of flu Wednesday and her daughter also started to feel unwell."

A doctor at the Jenai Hospital in Taipei city Saturday reported the case to the health authorities after diagnosing the woman.

Health authorities immediately placed under quarantine doctors and nurses at three hospitals which the woman patient had visited after complaining of fever and other flu symptoms.

On Sunday Taiwan cleared of swine flu 16 people who shared a flight with four Japanese people who were later found to have been infected with the swine flu virus.

Tests on all of the Taiwanese passengers proved negative, the deputy chief of Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control told reporters.

The 16 travellers had been on the same Northwest Airlines flight between the US city of Detroit and Tokyo Friday as the four confirmed Japanese cases.

Swine flu, or A(H1N1) influenza as it is officially known, has claimed about 50 lives worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.