SARS CRISIS: China reported fewer than 100 new SARS cases yesterday for the third straight day, raising hopes it might finally be taming the killer virus, but the UN health agency said it was too early to say the worst was over.
The number of new cases was also ebbing in Hong Kong, where 250,000 children returned to school yesterday after a six-week break, and there were signs of reviving confidence on Beijing streets.
But the number of deaths continued to mount in Taiwan.
China, which has been hardest hit by the epidemic, logged 75 fresh cases, among the smallest daily totals in the three weeks since it started reporting its caseload honestly. The lowest figure so far has been 69, reported on Sunday.
Beijing accounted for 48 of China's new patients. Late last week the capital was still reporting 100 to 150 cases a day.
But the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it lacked the data needed to determine whether the tide had turned in China, where the death toll rose by 12 to more than 250 people.
More than 5,000 people have been infected in China, the bulk of the global total of more than 7,000.
"We don't feel that we can make a real conclusion about how the epidemic is evolving," spokeswoman Ms Mangai Balasegaram said.
Officials also declined to let their guard drop after the Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao, said on a trip to the northern province of Shanxi that the spread of the flu-like illness had not yet been fully controlled and still threatened China's vast countryside.
Last week, a top Beijing health official said he did not know where about half the city's new SARS patients caught the disease.
Hong Kong reported a further three fatalities, raising the figure there to 218 but schools reopened, a sign that the hard-hit city was resuming normal life.
Children, wearing masks, returned to class. Each student underwent a temperature check at the school gate and washed their hands in newly installed basins.
Despite the fuss, children said they were glad to be back.
"At the beginning, I had great fun. But after a while, I started feeling really lonely," said Ivan Chung, a primary student at Baptist Lui Ming Choi primary school.
The government reported five new SARS cases, the ninth day running that new infections were in single digits, but the WHO said it would be some time before it would withdraw a travel warning it issued for Hong Kong more than a month ago.
As infections slow, fewer Hong Kong people are wearing masks and patrons have started to return to restaurants and bars.
Taiwan, which initially escaped the worst of the epidemic, reported six SARS deaths and 23 more SARS cases yesterday, taking fatalities to 24 and the number of infections to 207.
Nevertheless, government officials said there were no signs the virus had spread into the wider community - (Reuters)