Premier Wen Jiabao urged governments at various levels and all
localities to report and release the situation of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) accurately, timely and honestly,
forbidding the withholding of information to delay its release.
Anyone who covers up SARS cases or delays the release of
information will be harshly punished as this matter concerns the
people's health and safety, he said.
Wen made the call on Friday during a tour of Beijing's
kindergartens and schools to inspect SARS prevention and treatment
measures.
According to Wen, the central government has already sent
supervision teams to the infected areas to monitor local prevention
work.
Talking with students and teachers at Beijing University of
Aerospace and Aeronautics, Wen said the institution should adopt
pertinent and powerful measures to enhance the effective prevention
work on the campus and spread SARS prevention information.
Wen urged local governments and related authorities to give more
guidance to schools and help them to solve the practical questions
in time.
The Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that no medical
institution in China can refuse to admit SARS patients and SARS
suspects, otherwise the institution and its staff will face legal
proceedings.
In
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 30 new SARS patients
were admitted to hospitals, while 50 were discharged, according to
a statement jointly issued by the Department of Health and the
hospital authority of Hong Kong.
Four patients died in hospitals, bringing the total number of
SARS-related deaths to 69 in Hong Kong.
A
total of 322 patients have recovered from SARS and have been
discharged from public hospitals.
Most of the patients currently in hospital are showing positive
responses to the new treatment arrangements. Intensive care units
are currently treating 120 patients.
Also on Friday, Michael Martin, the counsellor with the Canadian
Embassy in Beijing, said that a Canadian visitor to Beijing, who
was suspected to have infected with SARS has recovered and was
discharged from Beijing Ditan Hospital last Friday and returned to
Canada on Tuesday.
According to Martin's knowledge, the victim was not confirmed as a
SARS patient by his doctor. However, Xiang Xiaopei, vice-president
of Ditan Hospital told China Daily on Thursday the Canadian was
infected with SARS.
In
29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of Chinese
mainland, the accumulative number of SARS cases rose to 1,482 after
25 new cases were reported on Thursday, of which six were in South
China's Guangdong Province, 17 in Shanxi Province in the north, one
in Shanghai and one in Central China's Henan Province.
Fatalities from SARS remained unchanged at 65.
Meanwhile, 19 patients in Guangdong were discharged from hospital,
bringing the total recoveries to 1,126.
In
order to prevent further spread of the disease, the Guangdong
quarantine authority has introduced a measure requiring everyone
arriving in the South China province to have a health certificate
proving they do not have SARS.
The measure went into effect at all ports of entry in Guangdong on
April 14.
Sources with the local quarantine authority said health declaration
cards will be distributed to passengers before they board
airplanes, ships or trains and their completion will be supervised
by aircraft commanders, captains and heads of train crew.
In
addition, when passengers arrive in Guangdong, health professionals
will be on hand to provide health checks and verify the accuracy of
the declarations.
(People's Daily April 19, 2003)
