'No SARS patient came to Mumbai'

The Maharashtra government on Thursday clarified that no patient infected with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome had landed at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport.

Director, Health Services, Subhash Salunke told rediff.com, "We are maintaining a 24-hour vigil at the airport in Mumbai and our doctors are checking all passengers who are coming in."

Earlier, media reports had said one person suffering from the atypical pnuemonia, SARS, flew into the city on Wednesday night from Hong Kong and drove down to Pune.

Airport Director Sudhir Kumar said he was surprised to hear the news. "We have been keeping round-the-clock vigil and so far our doctors have not informed me anything about such a patient. The news is baseless," he said.

The government has deputed four doctors equipped with the necessary medicines at the airport.

Special rooms have been earmarked at the Kasturba Hospital in south Mumbai and at V N Desai Hospital at Santacruz to detain any infected person.

Meanwhile, the government has postponed a meeting of deans of all city hospitals, which was to take place on Thursday. "We will now meet on Friday at 4 pm to discuss ways and means to tackle this disease," Salunke said.