- (AFP) -- Concern over the global spread of the killer
SARS virus grew as more deaths were reported in Hong Kong, additional cases
were detected in North America and the worldwide number of infections approached
3,000.
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- In China, the epicentre of the outbreak, World Health
Organisation (WHO) experts said they wanted to open an investigation in
Beijing following allegations that the death toll from Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) was higher than official figures stated.
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- The economic impact of the outbreak worsened as more
airlines cut flights to affected areas and businesses across the region
felt the pinch of the downturn in international travellers.
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- In Hong Kong, one of the worst-hit areas, another two
deaths were reported and 42 new cases were detected, raising the territory's
death toll to 27 and the number of infected to 970, health officials said.
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- They continued a grim trend of multiple daily deaths
and accelerating infections in the territory after health officials last
week said the outbreak was ebbing.
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- The global death toll from SARS now stands at 106, with
2,939 infected.
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- Canada, the worst hit country outside of Asia, overnight
reported its detected cases of SARS had risen by six to 242. The only good
news was that a suspected 11th SARS-related death was cleared of any link
to the virus.
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- Earlier, US health authorities said another 33 sufferers
had been detected since Friday, bringing the total of SARS cases to 148
with no deaths.
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- WHO experts searching for the origins of the outbreak
in China urged officials there to come clean on the scale of the disease
after a Time magazine report in which a doctor claimed the capital's main
hospital for SARS cases had admitted 60 patients with the virus, of whom
seven died.
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- This contradicted health ministry figures of 19 infected
and four dead.
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- The report echoed allegations by other nurses and doctors
that the true extent of the virus' spread had been covered up by the authorities,
adding to international criticism of China's slow response in addressing
the disease.
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- The WHO now wants to lead as extensive an investigation
in Beijing as it did in the southern province Guangdong, where the disease
was first detected in November and where the majority of China's 1,279
officially tallied cases and 53 deaths occurred.
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- Fears of the spread of SARS -- thought to be related
to the common cold-causing coronavirus -- meanwhile continued to take its
toll on the global economy as travellers and businessmen kept away from
SARS-hit areas.
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- As Manila considered issuing a travel warning to Filipnos
wanting to go to Hong Kong, the territory's five-star hotels were reportedly
struggling with occupancy rates of just 10 per cent. Similarly, Indonesian
and Vietnamese resorts reported slumps in arrivals of between 30 and 40
per cent.
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- In Thailand -- where two people have died with SARS --
travel agents warned that the strategically important tourism sector faced
the worst crisis in its history, while in Vietnam, with four reported deaths,
hundreds of mostly European businessmen snubbed a major international trade
show in Hanoi.
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- Malaysia, which has recorded one death, took steps to
ease the spread of SARS by temporarily freezing the issue of visas to Chinese
and Hong Kong travellers.
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- The US also showed it was not immune from the SARS fallout
with the announcement that lucrative Japanese arrivals in Hawaii had fallen
40 percent.
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- There was more bad news from the already-depressed airline
industry.
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- Air Canada cancelled flights to Hong Kong, Shanghai and
Beijing; Air India pilots refused to fly to affected areas; and Hong Kong's
Dragonair slashed 64 more flights from its schedules, adding a further
blow to the territory's airport, which saw 31 per cent of its air movements
cancelled Wednesday.
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- Elsewhere, South Africa reported the first case in the
African continent; Russia said it had two suspected cases; a Chinese man
became Brazil's third detected and victim; and Kazakhstan reported its
first suspected infections.
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