CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Six students and one teacher from a private school in Carlsbad were hospitalized Tuesday with confirmed cases of swine flu, while three more students and a second teacher were hospitalized with undiagnosed illnesses, it was reported.

The hospitalized students and teachers are among a group of 36 ninth-graders and seven adult chaperones from Pacific Ridge School quarantined last Thursday by the Chinese government after some of the students fell ill while visiting the Asian country.

The students and teachers who are not hospitalized are staying in a hotel in the city of Yichang. School officials have said they do not know when the group might be allowed to fly home but all are in telephone contact with their families.

"The hospital has been most accommodating to our students, and our staff is in direct communication with the president of the hospital, as well as attending physicians," Pacific Ridge Director Eileen Mullady told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Our students are comfortable, safe and in good spirits."

The decision to quarantine the group is consistent with the protocol the World Health Organization set up when they declared a swine flu pandemic last week. Also known as the H1N1 virus, the flu has stricken nearly 36,000 people worldwide since earlier this year, according to WHO.

As of Monday morning, there were 263 confirmed cases of the virus in San Diego County. No one locally has died from the virus, though there have been deaths elsewhere in California and across the country.