- BEIJING/TORONTO (Reuters)
- China sealed off a major hospital in Beijing on Thursday as SARS fears
spread through the capital a day after the World Health Organization warned
against travel to the city.
-
- WHO also urged against travel to Toronto, a statement
that drew a furious reaction from Canadian officials.
-
- In a worrying signal of the effect of the disease on
business, Japan's Kyodo news agency said Toyota Motor Co could pull out
its Japanese staff from Beijing.
-
- But the World Bank said East Asian economies should be
able to weather the disruption caused by SARS, although it would have a
severe short-term effect.
-
- Mainland China has 106 of the 254 killed by SARS so far
and more than half of the 4,500 infections worldwide. Although SARS is
believed to have originated in southern Guangdong province last year, the
situation in Beijing is causing particular alarm with soaring numbers of
infections this week.
-
- On Wednesday, the Beijing city government said it would
quarantine people and buildings infected, or suspected of being infected,
with the SARS virus, the official Xinhua news agency said -- by force if
necessary.
-
- The sealing of the 1,200-bed Beijing University People's
Hospital on Thursday was the first dramatic sign of the measure being implemented.
-
- "No one is allowed to enter or leave," a member
of the 2,300-strong staff told Reuters by telephone. "There are policemen
and security guards standing outside."
-
- The hospital is not one of those set aside to treat SARS
patients but at least 60 nurses and doctors in the hospital are confirmed
or suspected to be infected.
-
- The government also ordered all Beijing's primary and
secondary schools closed for two weeks from Thursday, a move that will
affect an estimated 1.7 million children.
-
- Beijing, a city of 14 million people, has reported almost
700 SARS cases and 35 deaths. Shanxi, which lies west of the capital, has
the third highest number of cases in China, 157 cases with seven deaths,
according to health ministry figures.
-
- Credit rating agency Fitch lowered the outlook on Hong
Kong's currency to negative from stable because of SARS and the toll it
is taking on business in the former British colony where 105 people have
died.
-
- "Now well into its second month and continuing to
deteriorate, the SARS outbreak appears to be depressing economic activity
in Hong Kong dramatically," Fitch said.
-
- Singapore reported another death from SARS overnight,
taking its total to 15 known fatalities and two suspected ones. The city-state
said all visitors entering and leaving will have their temperature checked
at the airport or at land crossings.
-
- ANGER IN CANADA
-
- The WHO statement, which advised against travel to Beijing,
China's Shanxi province and Toronto in addition to a previous warning about
Hong Kong and Guangdong, led to outrage in Canada.
-
- "Where did this group come from? Who did they see?
Who did they talk to?" a visibly angry Mel Lastman, Toronto's mayor,
asked at a press conference, referring to WHO.
-
- "They sit somewhere, I understand Geneva, I don't
even know where the hell they came from, and they make decisions.
-
- "Let me be clear. If it's safe to live in Toronto,
it's safe to come to Toronto. I dare them to be here tomorrow."
-
- City health officials said the WHO advisory was both
irresponsible and regrettable. "The outbreak is not over but it is
definitely under control," said Sheela Basrur, Toronto's medical officer
of health.
-
- Canada has 330 cases of SARS and 16 deaths, most of them
in Toronto, which has a large Chinese population.
-
- SARS, a respiratory infection caused by a relative of
a common cold virus, has no sure-fire cure. It is spread by droplets from
sneezing and coughing, but may also be transmitted by touching objects
such as lift buttons.
-
- WHO fears that SARS, with a mortality rate that approaches
six percent, may become a permanent human disease.
-
- In Singapore, alarm was growing over an outbreak among
vendors at the city-state's largest vegetable market and the government
threatened to jail people violating quarantine.
-
- Taiwan reported nine new cases as a raft of infections
at a Taipei hospital brought the island's total to 38.
-
- WHO said the epidemic would contribute to a gloomy year
with global trade volume expected to increase by less than three percent
after an already poor 2.5 percent rise last year.
|
