- BEIJING (Reuters) - A sea
of people in white masks thronged Beijing railway stations on Wednesday
as hundreds of students and migrant workers tried to flee from China's
capital following the outbreak of SARS.
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- Disinfection squads spread across the mammoth nation
as the government stepped up the war against the disease.
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- Armies of workers in masks and rubber gloves and armed
with spray guns spritzed down airports and planes, buses and terminals,
trains and stations.
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- The government canceled domestic travel tours, sent teams
of medical experts to the provinces to contain the virus and canceled classes
for Beijing's 1.7 million school students.
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- The World Health Organization has said the disease, already
present in 19 cities, provinces and regions, could explode across the country
of 1.3 billion people if sharp measures were not taken to curb it.
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- Worried migrant workers and university students flocked
to train and bus stations and airports in the hope of getting out of Beijing,
where the government has raised the number of cases from 37 to 588 in three
days, out of the country's 2,158.
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- The city of 14 million people has also reported 666 suspected
cases and 28 deaths. Ninety seven people have died across the country so
far.
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- Hundreds of travelers lugging suitcases clogged the square
in front of Beijing Railway Station in hopes of getting on one of the dozens
of train going to the north, south and west.
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- A sea of faces in white cotton masks scanned coveted
train tickets, waiting for hours outside in the open, chilly air rather
than linger in crowded, enclosed waiting rooms.
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- "My train doesn't leave for another six hours, but
I'm not waiting inside," said 20-year-old Cao Shu, a student whose
university halted all classes two days ago because of SARS fears.
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- "I'M SCARED"
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- Across town at the Beijing West Railway Station, Deng
Pao, a 30-year-old migrant worker, read the latest SARS update from a tabloid
newspaper as he waited for an overnight train to Zhengzhou in Henan province,
which has reported just three cases.
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- "I'm going home because I'm scared of getting sick,"
he said after managing to buy a ticket. "I've been in Beijing for
two months and had a good job, but it's not worth it."
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- Deng said he would return once the outbreak was controlled.
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- It is unclear when that may be. China, after hiding the
true extent of the outbreak in Beijing for weeks, has leaped into damage
control. The health minister and mayor were sacked on Sunday and state
media unleashed to report on SARS -- including more honest infection levels
and prevention measures.
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- As part of apparent damage control efforts, Vice Premier
Wu Yi would be appointed interim health minister, the Beijing-funded Wen
Wei Po newspaper in Hong Kong said in a front-page story.
-
- Analysts said the government was hoping Wu's appointment
would reassure foreign investors and help repair an image suffering its
worst damage since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
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-
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- Dubbed the "Iron Lady," Wu sits on the Communist
Party's elite 24-member Politburo. China's most senior woman politician,
she helped avert a trade war with the United States in the 1990s and is
respected by foreigners for her no-nonsense style.
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- ECONOMIC THREAT
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- Economists say SARS could now take a bite out of China's
roaring economy and hurt growth in other Asian nations. Singapore has said
SARS could provoke its worst crisis since independence 37 years ago.
-
- Investment bank JP Morgan Chase says the economy could
contract by two percent this quarter after years of about seven percent
annual growth.
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- China's leaders are rushing to reassure investors and
shore up confidence and maintain the flow of foreign investment.
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- "People still want to invest in China. All they
want is a little bit of certainty as to how they are dealing with a situation
like this and are they getting the information in a timely way," said
David Eldon, chairman of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp.
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- "If China can quickly demonstrate that they are
dealing with that as an issue, then I think the foreign direct investors
will still be interested in investing in China."
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- But half of the business leaders scheduled to accompany
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin decided against coming because
of SARS. His two-day trip, which starts Friday, was cut to one day and
extra doctors were put on standby.
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