Sars fears weigh on Beijing
2004-04-27 10:48
Beijing - More than 600 people have been isolated in Beijing as the city moved to prevent a Sars outbreak from spreading ahead of the busy Labour Day holidays, state media and medical workers said on Tuesday.
"The number of people who have been isolated has risen to more than 600 because of the Sars epidemic," Wu Jiang, director of the infectious disease control department of Beijing Centre of Disease Control told the Beijing News.
The CDC confirmed the figure when contacted by AFP.
"The people are either isloated in the same place or at home," said Wu.
"At the moment the situation is under control. There is little possibility of the Sars epidemic affecting Beijing society."
Chinese authorities last week said a researcher at the Beijing-based Institute of Virology contracted SARS and infected a nurse who took care of her at a Beijing hospital.
The researcher's mother has since died, while the nurse's relatives and contacts have also gone down with symptoms of the disease.
Isolation
So far there are six suspected and two confirmed cases in Beijing and Anhui province. At least 133 people are in isolation in Anhui, earlier reports said.
In response, the Institute of Virology has been closed down and emergency inspection teams are being rushed around the country to check if health guidelines are being followed.
The World Health Organisation is also sending a team to China to investigate how the infection happened and to check whether internationally-accepted bio-safety guidelines were compromised.
Last year Sars killed nearly 800 people and infected more than 8 000 worldwide, with Beijing the worst-hit city in the world.
The Beijing Daily, citing Mayor Wang Qishan, said that a Beijing anti-Sars headquarters had been set up.
"The whole city should pay high importance to Sars and act immediately and decisively to sincerely implement important instructions by the central leaders... to resolutely control the Sars epidemic," Wang said.
China begins a week-long Labour Day holiday on Saturday and millions of people will be on the move by train, bus and plane, raising fears that Sars could spread.