China's Most SARS Cases can be Traced: WHO Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, June 24, 2003

China's Most SARS Cases can be Traced: WHO Official

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Most of SARS cases in the Chinese mainland now can be traced back to known probable cases and the isolation period of Beijing's last SARS patient has been longer than 20 days, a senior official with the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, just announced to remove Beijing from WHO list of SARS-infected areas and lift a travel advisory against the city, saying the riskfor travelers to Beijing "is now minimum."

Based on "careful analysis" of data provided by the Chinese government, "most of the cases reported are now traced back to known probable cases," Omi said at a press conference jointly heldby WHO and China's Ministry of Health, while explaining why the UNhealth agency withdrew its previous concern over some SARS cases with unclear transmission in China.

It was on May 29 that Beijing's last SARS patient was put into isolation, which has been well beyond the 20-day period required by WHO to remove a location from the list of areas with recent local transmission, Omi said.

The patient was treated as a suspect case until June 11 when the case was clinically confirmed as SARS, added Gao Qiang, vice-minister of health of China.

SARS has infected 5,326 people and killed 347 on the Chinese mainland so far. In Beijing alone, a total of 2,521 SARS cases have been recorded, with 191 fatalities.

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