China: China raised the alarm over severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) yesterday, exhorting quarantine, railway and airport officials to extra vigilance after three cases of the disease were confirmed as millions prepare to travel home for the lunar new year holiday.
All three cases were in the southern province of Guangdong, with one being a waitress who had worked in a restaurant that served civet cat, the suspected carrier of the SARS virus.
Two of the latest three SARS patients have recovered and a third was in a stable condition.
Mr Wu Yi, a vice-premier, ordered greater efforts to monitor the situation. People are expected to take about 1.9 billion trips during the 40-day peak travel period that began on January 7th. The Chinese new year festival starts on Thursday.
The relatively quick recovery of patients with SARS this year has generated speculation that the virus may have mutated into a strain less virulent than that which emerged in Guangdong in late 2002 before spreading to more than 30 countries, infecting about 8,000 people and killing nearly 800.
So far, with just three cases of SARS in Guangdong, there was no sign that the heightened vigilance toward the disease was slowing down commercial activity. At the height of the epidemic in Beijing last spring, the city came to a virtual standstill.- (Financial Times)