- TORONTO (Reuters) - The deadly
SARS respiratory virus claimed the lives of two more Canadians, health
officials said on Tuesday, warning the outbreak could get worse even as
strict measures are imposed at hospitals and airports.
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- A total of six Canadians have now died from severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS), with the number of probable or suspect cases
rising to 151 from 129, and thousands of people still in quarantine.
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- Health officials in Ontario, the province of 11 million
where most of the cases and all of the deaths have occurred, said the latest
victims were elderly patients. One died on Monday evening, and the other
early on Tuesday.
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- The two likely contracted the illness from a cluster
of cases at Toronto's Scarborough Grace Hospital, where dozens of health
care workers were infected before the disease was identified.
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- Health officials said restrictive measures would be maintained
at every hospital in the province to contain the disease. These include
discouraging non-essential visitors and screening patients.
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- "We're doing what we can, and we're trying to be
ahead of it, and we're being proactive. We're hoping that will either slow
it down or end it at this point," Ontario's commissioner of public
security, Dr. James Young, told a news conference on Tuesday.
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- The SARS virus has now affected almost 1,900 people in
at least a dozen countries, with at least 63 known to have died.
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- In Toronto, the outbreak has spurred panic buying of
medical masks and hurt local businesses as residents avoid public places.
Many parents are anxious about sending their children to school, particularly
after about 200 students from a high school near a hospital were put in
quarantine.
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- Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of
health, confirmed on Tuesday that four SARS cases were children. But he
said two contracted the illness after travel and two were linked to a case
from Scarborough Grace Hospital.
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- AIRPORTS ON ALERT
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- The disease caused fresh alarm in the United States on
Tuesday when officials in San Jose, California, quarantined a plane from
Tokyo for two hours after five people originating in Hong Kong reported
symptoms of the respiratory ailment. Three first-class passengers were
later taken to hospital.
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- In Canada, staff at Toronto's Pearson airport began handing
out cards to departing passengers on Tuesday asking them to contact medical
officials on hand if they had any symptoms.
-
- Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan told reporters
in Ottawa there was no need to go beyond the current measures for departing
passengers.
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- "There is no reason at this point to, in fact, interview
each one of the passengers that goes into line to leave Toronto,"
she said.
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- "That is the level of screening that is reasonable
and responsible at this time. We have no intention of shutting down Pearson
International Airport."
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- Prime Minister Jean Chretien told reporters he was confident
officials were doing everything needed to contain the spread of SARS and
urged the public to remain calm.
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- "It is a very serious problem that the minister
of health and our officials are working 24 hours a day to make sure that
it is as well controlled as possible," Chretien told reporters in
Ottawa.
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- "We're doing the utmost. We should not panic either."
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- The World Health Organization (news - web sites) has
now reported confirmed SARS cases in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore,
Canada, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Ireland
and Italy.
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