China has isolated more than 600 people in Beijing after a laboratory leak led to the first death from SARS since last year's outbreak killed nearly 800 people worldwide.
The 600 quarantined people, including 24 staff of the national centre of disease control, were under collective isolation or bound to their homes, the Beijing Newssaid.
More than 180 staff of the National Institute of Virology, where a medical student who caught SARS is believed to have engaged in research on live samples of the virus, were already sequestered, most at a resort north of Beijing.
All the cases diagnosed in the most recent outbreak - two confirmed and six suspected - were traced to the laboratory.
Experts from the World Health Organisation were to arrive in Beijing this week to help investigate the outbreak and prevent another.
Chinese authorities stepped up surveillance against the disease, which is highly contagious, before a week-long holiday starting on May 1st when millions of people are expected to take to the air, railways and roads.