- SINGAPORE (AFP) - The mystery
respiratory disease spreading across Asia claimed a second victim in Singapore,
as schools closed in the city state as well as in Hong Kong in hopes of
containing the creeping illness.
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- A Protestant minister who fell ill after visiting an
infected parishoner was the second reported Singaporean victim of Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a local television station reported.
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- Health ministry officials earlier said the first victim
was a male patient, but declined to give other details.
-
- Some 600,000 students will be kept out of school until
April 6 and at least 861 people in the city-state are now under orders
to stay home in a bid to contain the spread of the mystery illness.
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- Education Minister Teo Chee Hean said at a news conference
international schools are advised to "also close if they wish to do
so."
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- While Hong Kong authorities ordered only six schools
to close their doors because of the outbreak of the mystery virus, more
than 50 did so voluntarily Wednesday, according to education and manpower
department figures.
-
- Media reports suggested, however, the number of school
closures exceeded 100.
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- Parents across the region were gripped by uncertainty,
and rumors the disease was spreading beyond control gripped densely-populated
Singapore, where the number of SARS cases rose to 74, with 10 patients
in serious condition.
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- SARS has already been blamed for 10 deaths in Hong Kong,
four in Vietnam and three in Canada.
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- The disease was brought to Singapore by three local travellers
who had visited Hong Kong, where they were believed to have been infected
by a mainland Chinese doctor who eventually died.
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- Singapore has strongly advised against unnecessary travel
to Hong Kong and Hanoi, and Guangdong province in southern China -- strongly
suspected to be the origin of the outbreak.
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- Chinese state media, citing a local government report,
said Wednesday that four cases of atypical pneumonia had been identified
in Taiyuan, the capital of northern China's Shanxi province
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- Two victims remained in hospital in Shanxi, with no new
cases of the virus reported since March 11.
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- The municipal health bureau of Shanghai, China's commercial
center, said no cases of the mystery virus had been reported there, but
said an emergency plan had been adopted to ensure any outbreak was treated
immediately.
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- Canada has issued a travel advisory warning visitors
away from Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Guangdong, and Singaporean
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang also said it was possible other countries
could follow suit.
-
- "Very soon, people will look at us and put us in
the same category as Vietnam," he said.
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- Tourism is a major earner in the city-state, generating
about nine billion Singapore dollars (5.11 billion US) in revenues last
year.
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- At least 34 deaths from an outbreak of atypical pneumonia
in China could be SARS-linked, but experts have yet to establish a direct
connection.
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- The former British territory of Hong Kong, under Chinese
rule since 1997, has asked for an extra 200 million Hong Kong dollars (25.6
million USD) to battle the outbreak as residents become increasingly edgy.
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- Chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa said Wednesday it was imperative
the government adopt "more effective measures" to halt the spread
of the disease, which manifests itself as a form of pneumonia.
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- "The present situation is serious," he said.
"It is imperative for us to adopt more effective measures to prevent
the virus from further spreading."
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- A total of 487 cases of SARS have been reported in 12
countries, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO).
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- The WHO, in a statement issued Tuesday, said that despite
the outbreak it "continues to recommend no travel restrictions to
any destination."
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- Lim said that the strategy remains isolation of victims
and suspected cases through quarantines and restrictions on visits to hospitalised
victims.
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- Hefty fines will be imposed on those who break the 10-day
quarantine, which was imposed under the rarely invoked Infectious Diseases
Act, and visitors to homes of quarantined people should be limited.
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