In its latest move to fight the deadly SARS virus, China on Thursday sealed off a major hospital in the capital where four more people died of the disease and invoked emergency measures to quarantine the affected individuals and areas.
According to latest SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] statistics announced by China's ministry of health, the Chinese mainland reported a total of 2,422 confirmed cases while 209 people have died nation-wide. The panic-stricken capital itself has registered 39 deaths.
Hong Kong also announced four more deaths and 30 new cases of SARS taking the territory's toll to 109. Another 70 Hong Kong residents were placed under home quarantine as their observation confirmed one in five chance of infection with the virus.
Malaysia ordered a quarantine for 203 citizens, mostly low waged earners, who had visited a SARS-infected produce market in Singapore and warned that it would imprison those who would break the orders.
A day after the World Health Organisaton added Beijing and Shanxi province to its list of places travellers should avoid, the authorities here sealed off the 1,200-bed People's Hospital of Peking University because of multiple SARS infection. The move has prevented the staff and patients from leaving the complex or even allowing anybody to enter.
Canada reacted angrily at Toronto's inclusion in the WHO list of advisory to travellers, with Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman saying if the city was safe to live in then it was safe to visit as well.
