Another Chinese woman has died of bird flu, the Health Ministry said Saturday.  She is the country’s fourth death from the virus this year and the danger is still out there as the biggest festive season approaches.

The woman, 31, was from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. She had been to a live poultry market before she fell ill on January 10, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wang Xiaoyan, a deputy director of the regional health department. She died on Friday.

Tests confirmed she was suffering from the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, Xinhua said.

A 16-year-old boy died on Tuesday morning.  The boy fell ill on January 8 in his hometown and he was transferred to a hospital in Huaihua on January 16, when his condition worsened. According to some sources, he had contact with dead poultry. The other two bird flu deaths were a 27-year-old woman in Shandong province in the country's east, who died on Saturday, and a 19-year-old woman who died in Beijing on January 5.

The victims come at a critical time for the country, as more people than ever are predisposed to contracting bird flu this time of the year because of low winter temperatures.

Also, “with the approach of the Lunar New Year, the trade in poultry products is increasing, and there is a growing risk of the emergence and spread of epidemics,” the agriculture ministry warned.

The country’s Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, is that time of the year when families come together for a week-long holiday characterized by big meals featuring poultry and other meats. The authorities fear that more people could get infected with the bird flu. It is true that this kind of flu doesn’t transmit from one person to another. However, health experts are concerned that the virus may mutate into a form that is easily transmitted among human and spark an influenza pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.