China's Cabinet Despatches More SARS Inspection Teams to Regions

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 22, 2003

China's Cabinet Despatches More SARS Inspection Teams to Regions

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The State Council, China's cabinet, has decided to send more SARS prevention and treatment monitoring teams to cities, provinces and autonomous regions, including Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Guangdong and Ningxia.

Premier Wen Jiabao urged the teams to make efforts to publicizethe importance of prevention and treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the policies and arrangements by the central governemnt and to investigate and report the latest situation of SARS in these regions.

Special attention should be paid to rural areas, schools, government bodies and enterprises, Wen said.

The premier also said the inspection teams should work togetherwith local governments.

Vice-Premier Wu Yi presided over Monday afternoon's meeting with all members of the teams. She said the situation remained grave though marked progress has been made to combat the potentially lethal disease.

Guangdong Province reported 31 new SARS cases and two deaths for the five-day period between Wednesday and Sunday last week. This compares to 47 new cases during the previous five days.

During the later five-day period, 59 patients recovered and were discharged from hospital. The province has so far reported a total of 1,317 cases, with 1,136 or 86.3 per cent of those people having recovered.

As of Sunday, a cumulative total of 4,554 cases with 204 deaths has been reported around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Xinhua News Agency Monday published the speech delivered by Premier Wen at a national meeting on April 13 about fighting against SARS.

Wen was quoted as saying that China is facing a great challenge in the fight against SARS. The State Council is treating it as a priority in its work and the country will try its best to control the disease, he said.

China has realized the weakness of its public health system and decided to build a national fast-acting mechanism to deal with public health emergencies, Wen said.

He said China will improve its co-operation with other regions, countries and international organizations, including the WHO.

A six-member team of WHO experts, comprising five foreign experts and one Chinese expert, arrived in Shanghai Monday for a four-day visit dealing with SARS prevention and treatment.

The team is expected to confer with local health authorities; inspect hospitals, colleges and local disease control centres at the municipal and district level; and examine measures taken to prevent and control SARS cases.

An official with the WHO said Monday in Beijing that, although it is difficult for him to judge the real number of SARS victims in China, he "trusts'' his Chinese counterparts, referring to the country's health departments.

Jeffrey McFarland told Xinhua: "It is very encouraging to see that all sectors of the health care system -- which means the Ministry of Health and all hospitals, whether local, military or otherwise -- are reporting every day all the probable cases.'' He stressed that this is the "only way'' to comprehend the magnitude of the epidemic.

Northwest China's Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, Northeast China's Liaoning Province and East China's Zhejiang Province have all reported their first SARS cases, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Health Monday.

To prevent SARS from spreading more widely, the Ministry of Communications issued an urgent notice Monday to tell all transportation authorities to adopt stricter measures to prevent the possible spread of SARS through vehicles.

The ministry said all passenger terminals and vehicles, including buses and ships, should be sterilized and well ventilated every day. A national inspection of the road and waterway transport sector will be launched before May 1.

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