- HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong
Kong reported a sharp rise in pneumonia virus cases on Sunday, more than
half of them in a single apartment building, as Thailand and Singapore
stepped up curbs on air travelers.
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- Singapore's health ministry said from Monday, nurses
will be mobilized to meet all incoming flights from affected areas, to
check ill passengers.
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- "Based on the latest information, this disease is
more infectious than we thought," Singapore's Health Minister Lim
Hng Kiang told reporters.
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- Hong Kong Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong told local
television on Sunday that infections leapt by 60 to 530 in the crowded
city and that one more person had died of severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS), taking the toll to 13.
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- "The numbers will go up for one or two weeks,"
the minister added, a prediction that will fuel the fears of the city's
seven million residents as officials try to rein in a disease that has
killed 58 people across the world and infected 1,612.
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- Scores of cases from one Hong Kong apartment block have
raised fears the virus could be airborne rather than spread by droplets
from sneezing or coughing as previously thought.
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- At Amoy Gardens in urban Kowloon, the number of residents
infected has soared from seven mid-week to 121 on Sunday, baffling health
officials.
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- Panic-stricken residents, wearing face masks and gloves,
moved out of the estate, and shops and restaurants were deserted or shut.
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- "I'm scared. I'm taking my temperature every day,"
said one woman resident. "I stayed at home for several days. It's
terrifying. I think I'll get it sooner or later."
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- The government urged the territory's families to clean
their homes on Sunday in a bid to contain the spread of SARS. Authorities
were disinfecting public parks. Taxi drivers were cleaning their vehicles.
Schools were already closed.
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- HUNT FOR PASSENGERS
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- Health officials say the virus, identified by Hong Kong
scientists as belonging to a family of viruses that cause colds, first
surfaced in southern China in November and has since been spread by air
travelers around the world.
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- Worst hit have been China, with 34 dead and more than
800 infected, and Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Taiwan and Thailand. North
America and Europe have also reported infections.
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- Singapore has closed all schools and placed more than
1,500 people under house quarantine.
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- Hong Kong authorities said they were urgently tracing
222 passengers and 15 crew members on last Wednesday's Dragonair flight
KA 901 from Beijing after one passenger was found to have caught the disease
and was now in hospital.
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- Thailand said on Sunday it would quarantine for at least
24 hours any incoming travelers suspected to be infected, and issued another
travel warning urging Thais to avoid visiting China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Singapore and Vietnam.
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- Singapore's Civil Aviation Authority ordered all airlines
operating at Changi international airport to ask passengers questions recommended
by the World Health Organization before allowing them to board flights
to the city state.
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- Any visibly unwell passenger would be asked to obtain
a doctor's certificate before being allowed on board a flight, the Ministry
of Health said in a statement.
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- It also one more person has died from SARS in Singapore,
bringing the toll to three and the number of infected to 91.
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- TRAVEL WARNINGS
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- The travel restrictions come after the United States
on Saturday added all of China and Singapore to a growing list of destinations
for tourists and business travelers to avoid.
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- The travel warnings and the war in Iraq have slashed
tourists in parts of Asia and regional airlines have been forced to cut
flights.
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- Hong Kong, which has suffered two economic slowdowns
in five years and outbreaks of a deadly bird flu, has been hit especially
hard by SARS.
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- Residents shun public places like shopping arcades and
restaurants, preferring the company of family and close friends. Detergents
and bleach, which doctors say can kill the bug, are the next hottest-selling
items after masks.
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- "I feel so helpless. I may get infected in the next
second. Why do we need a war when something so small can kill us?"
postgraduate student Karen Cheung writes in an emotional email to friends.
"All I can do is wear my mask."
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