- HONG KONG/BEIJING
(Reuters) - Hong Kong reported 39 new infections and three deaths from
a deadly respiratory virus on Saturday, and a top doctor in the battered
Chinese region said its health care system was in crisis.
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- The latest figures took the total of confirmed cases
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong to 800, and the
local death toll to 20, a government spokesman said.
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- The pneumonia-like disease, which may have originated
in southern China, hit the city in March and has been spread around the
world by air travelers.
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- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued an unprecedented
warning against travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong.
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- Malaysia reported its first likely death from SARS, which
has now killed more than 80 people and infected over 2,500 worldwide. Singapore,
with six fatalities, said it would keep its schools closed for several
more days to allay public fears.
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- France confirmed its first two cases of SARS infection,
two doctors who flew back together from Hanoi. An air hostess who traveled
on the same flight is in hospital as a suspected case.
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- British health authorities said on Saturday a suspected
case of SARS had been reported regarding a woman who returned to Britain
from Singapore on March 25. It was the fourth suspected case reported in
UK. The three others have been discharged from hospital.
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- In hard-hit Hong Kong, 10 health workers were among the
39 new SARS cases revealed on Saturday.
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- According to the Ming Pao newspaper, Dr Tse Chun Yan,
a senior physician at one hospital, wrote in a memo to his staff: "The
entire Hospital Authority is in crisis."
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- Beijing, meanwhile, began sending its first daily reports
on new SARS infections and deaths to the WHO, nearly five months after
the first victim caught the virus in its southern province of Guangdong,
which borders Hong Kong.
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- CHINESE REGRETS
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- China, which has seen 136,000 foreign tourists cancel
visits and fears more economic fall-out, issued a muted apology for its
handling of the crisis so far, through Li Liming, director of the Chinese
Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
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- Li told domestic media in Beijing on Friday: "Today
we apologize here to all of you that our health departments did not have
enough close cooperation with the media."
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- "We did not make good use of our health team to
help conduct mass science publicity which would have helped people grasp
an understanding of the disease, enhance their ability to prevent the disease
and be better aware of their own health," Li said.
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- But it did not appear that the official regrets were
intended for public consumption: foreign media were not invited to Li's
news conference and his apology went unreported in the Chinese state media
on Saturday.
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- China has come under fire for failing to report early
and openly on the disease that emerged in Guangdong, infecting hundreds
before spreading in March to Hong Kong and beyond.
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- Its state-controlled media operated under a virtual blackout
even as Hong Kong and Singapore announced quarantines, school closures
and gave daily updates on infections.
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- In the Guangdong capital, Guangzhou, a team of WHO experts
hunting for clues on the disease met provincial health officials and recovered
victims of SARS, and traveled to Foshan where the first case emerged in
November.
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- China, which has suffered more than half of all deaths
and infections from the disease, fears the effects of SARS on tourism and
the flow of foreign direct investment.
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- WORLD MICROWAVE CAPITAL
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- Guangdong is a key engine of growth for China. Foshan,
for example, makes 80 percent of the world's microwave ovens.
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- Chinese Health Minister Zhang Wenkang has stressed that
the outbreak is under "effective control," and Guangzhou still
plans to host its flagship trade fair this year. But analysts say that
global high-tech supply routes are threatened by SARS-related manufacturing
disruptions and travel bans.
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- Millions of Chinese are due to be on the move over the
week-long May 1 Labour Day holidays. China, which counts on three "Golden
Week" holidays a year to help fuel consumer spending, appeared eager
to keep public concern at a minimum.
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- "All of China's tourist attractions are guaranteed
to be safe and healthy," said a headline in the People's Daily.
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- The public is not so sure. At Beijing's Babaoshan Cemetery,
some mourners wore facemasks on Saturday to visit the graves of ancestors
for the annual Ching Ming tomb-sweeping festival.
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- Although WHO says the disease is less infectious than
influenza, and the death rate from SARS so far has been between three and
four percent, experts say patients in areas without good medical facilities
face a higher mortality risk.
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- The disease has squeezed air travel and cut hotel occupancy
rates in some Asian hotspots, reached 19 countries or regions and has many
governments bracing to meet the threat.
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- Vietnam, where the spread of the disease was thought
to be in check, quarantined a doctor suspected of catching SARS from a
patient, along with 43 others with whom he had contact.
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- Australia posted doctors and nurses at major airports
on Saturday to monitor travelers for SARS, armed with the power to quarantine
people with suspected symptoms.
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- In the United States, which has 115 suspected cases of
SARS, President Bush issued an executive order allowing health officials
to use forced quarantine of patients if needed.
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- Continental Airlines suspended Hong Kong to New York
flights until the end of May, and the national airline in Mauritius halted
flights to Singapore and Malaysia over SARS fears.
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