Hong Kong reports progress in fight against SARS virus

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's leader said Monday that the territory is gaining ground in the fight against a deadly respiratory virus sweeping Asia, even though the death toll continued to rise and there was still no known cure.

Thirteen new SARS deaths were reported Monday -- seven in mainland China and six in Hong Kong. Yet Hong Kong's deaths and 22 new cases Monday were fewer than the jumps of 40 and 50 cases a day that the World Health Organization had reported recently.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said quarantine measures and efforts to find people who came into contact with those infected seem to be working. Hong Kong and China have been hardest hit by SARS.

"On the whole, I think we are slowly but surely getting the figures stabilized," Tung told reporters. Still, he declined to take questions and would not predict how long it will be before SARS is brought under control.

About 3,900 people have now been infected by SARS around the world. The 13 new deaths -- reported by China's Health Ministry and in a Hong Kong government statement -- brought the global death toll to at least 217, according to the World Health Organization.

World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng said the latest figures out of Hong Kong were encouraging because the territory hasn't seen the sharp spikes in cases. She also said that in Hong Kong new cases can be traced back to other reports of SARS and aren't appearing in unexpected places.

Taking 'right' measures

"Hong Kong has been taking the right infection containment measures," Cheng said. "Every new case we're still able to track to someone who is known to have had SARS."

There is no known cure for the illness, though people treated early enough usually recover, and most of those who have died in Hong Kong were elderly or were sick with something else as well. Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, a cough and difficulty breathing.

In China, where SARS appears to have originated, the government again sought to show it was taking the illness seriously enough after playing down the crisis -- and apparently covering up the number of cases -- for weeks.

State newspapers reported Monday that Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong was dismissed, a day after he and China's health minister were removed from their key Communist Party posts. The punishments came after an announcement by the Health Ministry that the number of SARS cases in Beijing had soared by about tenfold to 346.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said his government is "giving top priority" to SARS, according to news reports. The illness dominated Chinese state media on Monday -- a striking change from weeks of limited coverage or none at all.

Mainland China has reported 86 deaths compared to Hong Kong's 94, though it has the most cases, with at least 1,959 tallied by late Monday, the WHO said. Hong Kong now has 1,402 cases.

Thirty-nine people in the United States have been counted as probable or suspected SARS cases, though no one is believed to have died from it. Canada has reported 12 deaths and 132 cases, the biggest SARS outbreak outside of Asia.

Canada has been strict about putting people with SARS under quarantine, but a health care worker advised to stay home in voluntary quarantine because of possible SARS symptoms attended a funeral anyway, putting hundreds of people at risk, an official said Monday.

Dr. Hanif Kassam, medical officer of health for York Region north of Toronto, refused to identify the man or the hospital where he worked.

Hong Kong's education secretary, Arthur Li, said schools that have been shut since March 29 would begin reopening Tuesday. Schools were closed after some students fell ill, though there is no sign that the virus was spread in classrooms.

The disease has hurt several southeast Asian economies, battering their tourist trade. Singapore health ministry officials began a quarantine Monday of all 2,400 workers at the city-state's largest wholesale vegetable market, where three people were stricken by SARS and one died.

The shutdown is expected to significantly disrupt the country's supply of fresh produce.

Lawmakers in Singapore were asked take their temperatures before each sitting and to excuse themselves if they had a fever. Another 467 people already are confined to their homes in Singapore, which has suffered 16 SARS deaths. Six new cases were reported Monday.

The gambling enclave of Macau, on China's southern coast, reported its first suspected case of SARS. The victim, a 38-year-old saleswoman, was placed in quarantine.

The former Portuguese colony had been free of SARS despite its proximity to Hong Kong, 40 miles to the east, and frequent visits by thousands of Hong Kong gamblers who visit its casinos.