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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, May 15, 2003

WHO: Toronto Area Not Affected by SARS

Canadian officials cheered Toronto's removal from a list of the world's SARS hot spots Wednesday, saying it was "another vote of confidence" and proof that it was safe to travel there.


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Canadian officials cheered Toronto's removal from a list of the world's SARS hot spots Wednesday, saying it was "another vote of confidence" and proof that it was safe to travel there.

Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement said the decision was "an absolute vindication of our public health officials, our nurses, doctors, other emergency workers, everyone who fought long and hard."

The World Health Organization announced it no longer considers Toronto an area affected by SARS because at least 20 days had passed since the last domestically acquired case of the virus was isolated or had died. The WHO said the last such case was April 20.

The United Nations health agency also said assurances from Canada that a man listed as a possible SARS case in Finland could not have contracted the illness while in Toronto had helped them make the decision.

The WHO's head of communicable diseases suggested that the clarification about the Finland case helped the organization come to its decision to remove Toronto from the list, based on evidence that the chain of local transmission in Toronto had been broken.

"Our decision on whether or not to remove a country from the list of local transmission depends on whether or not there has been a new case that's had onset within the past 20 days," Dr. David Heymann said from Switzerland.

The United Nations health agency announced the decision on its Web site, saying it was reached after a teleconference between officials from Toronto, Health Canada and WHO. It also was announced in the Canadian Parliament by Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Source: Agencies




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