Airports and rail stations across China are checking the temperatures of passengers from Beijing and eastern Anhui province for SARS after confirmation of a fifth case as the week-long May Day holiday approaches.
The Health Ministry said a suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) patient who died in eastern Anhui on April 19th was confirmed to have had the disease. But no new cases had been reported in the 24 hours to 10 a.m. on Friday, the ministry said.
So far, the ministry has announced five diagnosed and four suspected cases of the highly contagious and flu-like SARS in Beijing and Anhui in recent weeks. The woman who died was the mother of another confirmed case, it said.
One of the confirmed cases was in critical condition, the ministry said. The other three were stable and had normal temperatures, it said.
Major airports and railway stations have set up temperature scanners inside the front doors of buildings or beside baggage scanners as well as at exits to screen for fever, a universal symptom of SARS.
Several countries, fearful of a repeat of last year's devastating SARS outbreak, have started screening visitors from China. China said it had notified foreign visitors that a Beijing disease control laboratory could be the source of the new outbreak.
The World Health Organisation, which has a team of about 16 people in Beijing and Anhui investigating the latest outbreak, said on Friday there was an apparent chain of transmission in the cases so far.
"What we are saying at the moment is that there is no significant public health threat from SARS in China," spokesman Bob Dietz said.