Taiwan struggles with new SARS outbreak

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The chief of a Taiwanese hospital at the center of a new SARS outbreak resigned Monday, while Singapore told construction companies and factories to check workers daily for fevers to guard against a second wave of infections there.

In China's capital, thousands of people braved a drizzle to visit the national library, which reopened Monday in the latest sign of recovery for the city hardest hit by SARS.

But readers were checked for fevers, a key symptom of the virus, and were urged to wear masks before being allowed to use the newly sterilized books.

The library was shut at the height of the city's SARS crisis in April, when authorities also closed schools, cinemas and gymnasiums.

China and Hong Kong each recorded one new SARS death Monday. Together, the two account for about 80 percent of the 785 fatalities worldwide.

At least 8,300 people have been sickened by severe acute respiratory syndrome since it first emerged in November.

In Canada, a hospital 40 miles east of Toronto stopped admitting new patients Monday after reporting 14 possible SARS cases.

Toronto was the site of the world's largest outbreak outside Asia, and has reported 33 deaths.

Some of the 14 at the Lakeridge Health Center in Whitby, Ontario, were dialysis patients, and all had pneumonia-like symptoms consistent with SARS. Officials said it was too soon to confirm it was SARS or say what the cause was.

"We certainly hope they aren't SARS and we hope it's something that's treatable," said Dr. James Young, the Ontario commissioner of public safety. "We have to assume they may be SARS."

Toronto controlled its initial wave of infections by May. A second outbreak that spread from one undiagnosed case in a hospital has been mostly brought under control, but officials have warned some patients in critical condition could die.

Taiwan, the No. 3 hotspot, reported four new cases Monday, and health officials in the island's capital approved the resignation of Yangming Hospital President Wang Tai-long to accept responsibility for a new outbreak there.

Yangming has reported at least six SARS patients and 13 others with symptoms since Friday, dealing a blow to authorities who thought they had stopped the illness from spreading at hospitals -- the source of 90 percent of Taiwan's infections.

But officials maintained they were bringing the outbreak under control and Taiwan still requested the World Health Organization lift a travel warning against the island.

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower, meanwhile, ordered all construction sites, shipyards and factories to take workers' temperatures daily or risk losing the right to hire low-cost foreign laborers.

Singapore has reported no new cases in almost a month, but many of the city-state's manual laborers are immigrants from China. "So long as there are SARS-affected areas in the region and the world, we cannot afford to let our guard down," the ministry said.

SARS outbreaks have eased in most places in recent weeks, although WHO officials have expressed continued misgivings about the quality of SARS data in mainland China, where the communist government bungled its initial response to the disease.

China's biggest airline on Monday offered free flights for life to whomever finds a cure or vaccine for SARS. China Southern Airlines said its passenger numbers have fallen 83 percent in May from a year earlier because of the flu-like illness.

Mainland China has reported 340 SARS deaths, Hong Kong 288 deaths, Taiwan 81, Canada 33 and Singapore 31. There have also been fatalities in Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and South Africa.