Enterovirus 71 (EV71) first appeared in March when young children were admitted to hospitals in Fuyung, northwest Anhui, suffering from fever, rashes, blisters and mouth ulcers.
The director of the province's health departments, Gao Kaiyan, said that 849 children had responded well to treatment and recovered while 879 remained in hospitals, 40 of them are "critically ill."
Kaiyan said: "Authorities in Anhui and Fuyang are doing utmost to treat the children and strengthen disease control."
All of the children that have been affected by EV71 are under six years of age, with the majority under two.
Over 1,000 children are receiving outpatient treatment.
All kindergartens closed for the May holidays two days early to try and prevent the virus, which is highly contagious, from spreading.
There is no vaccine for EV71.
Xinhua said that there were about 400,000 children below the age of five in Fuyung.
