China Mobilizes Resources to Fight SARS

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, May 01, 2003

China Mobilizes Resources to Fight SARS

Wang Xiaojie, a local of Beijing city, which is in the throes of the SARS epidemic, is annoyed at herself for succumbing to a bout of panic buying brought on by the virus.

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Wang Xiaojie, a local of Beijing city, which is in the throes of the SARS epidemic, is annoyed at herself for succumbing to a bout of panic buying brought on by the virus.

Like many others, she can barely move around her house, piled up with emergency supplies bought in a moment of blind panic.

Scared by rumors that the city would be isolated, Wang and thousands of others poured into supermarkets to buy food and supplies which would not normally be needed.

Although things soon returned to normal, statistics show that salt sales reached 7,247 tons from April 23 to 25, equal to normal sales for 45 days.

Similar panic buying sprees were noticed in other provinces during the same period, including Hebei, Shanxi, Tianjin, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

"China has ample commodities to meet the needs of citizens," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, after inspecting a supermarket inBeijing on April 26.

Factories making ambulances, incinerators, disinfectant, gauze masks, gloves and other urgently needed supplies are running at full production.

China's transport departments are doing their best to guarantee the supply of medical facilities and necessary commodities to regions affected by SARS.

As for the salt, "There is enough salt in stock to meet demand for four months, so it is not necessary for people to worry about the supply of salt," said Dong Zhihua, general manager of China's National Salt Corporation.

The State Development and Reform Commission of China has allocated and transported emergency medical facilities to some SARS-hit regions, including Beijing and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Up to April 28, the commission had publicly punished nine dealers which had illegally produced and sold commodities related to the SARS epidemic.

Due to fluctuation in some medicine and commodities markets, China's Ministry of Commerce has created a special monitoring system to record price changes in rice, flour, cooking oil, salt, meat, sugar, eggs, vegetables, gauze masks and disinfectant. The ministry will take measures to regulate the supply and price.

"China has the capacity to supply enough commodities to satisfy consumers' demand," said Zhang Zhigang, vice minister of China's Commerce Ministry.

"The shortage and price rises in some commodities in Beijing is mainly due to temporary mass buying. The stock of necessities in Beijing is adequate to guarantee supply," said Liang Wei, director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce.

According to analysts, the disappearance of panic buying so soon was directly attributed to the timely release of reliable SARS information and to the fact that people were confident that there are no shortages.

There was similar panic buying in some cities of Guangdong Province when SARS was reported in February. After the peak of theSARS outbreak, the mass buying of rice, vinegar and Chinese medicine became a joke among local people.

The Chinese government has decided to create a SARS control and prevention fund with two billion yuan (some 241 million US dollars), which will be used to finance the treatment of farmers and poor urban residents infected with SARS.

It will also be used to upgrade hospitals and purchase SARS-related medical facilities in central and western China, and for research programs on the virus.

Some local governments have also moved to allocate huge sums for SARS prevention and control.

Beijing municipal government has invested at least 400 million yuan (some 48 million US dollars) for SARS control in the city, according to acting mayor Wang Qishan. Other places including Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hebei and Shanghai have all set up special funds for SARS control.

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