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Posted on 04/12/2003 9:16:05 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin

HONGKONG -- The spread of the killer Sars virus shows no sign of slowing as China, Hongkong, Vietnam and Canada reported new deaths on Saturday -- taking the global death toll past 120 -- and more cases were reported around the world.

China said two people died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) in Inner Mongolia, the first reported cases in China's remote north, taking its death toll from the mystery virus to 60, by far the highest in the world.

The deaths occurred among 10 people infected in the region that borders Mongolia and Russia, the official Xinhua news agency reported, and renewed fears about the spread of the virus in the country, where the number of reported cases rose to 1,319.

In Hongkong, the second region hardest hit by the illness, health authorities reported three new deaths and 49 new infections taking the government's tally for the territory to 35 deaths and 1,108 cases.

The figure does not include an American national who was pronounced dead on arrival at a Hongkong hospital on Wednesday after being transferred from mainland China.

In Vietnam, the French embassy said a French doctor of Vietnamese origin had died, becoming the country's fifth recorded fatality from the pneumonia-like Sars, with 62 cases in the country.

All five had worked at the French Hospital, which treated the first person recorded with the disease in Vietnam late in February. The patient, a Chinese American businessman, was transferred to Hongkong where he died.

In Canada, the worst-hit nation outside of Asia, three more patients died of the disease, bringing the death total there to 13.

The three latest victims had a direct connection with the original cluster of Sars that began in Toronto in March, and all three had previous underlying medical conditions, a statement from provincial health authorities said.

The new deaths brought the global death toll from the virus to 126 with more than 3,000 people infected in around 30 countries, according to an AFP count based on reports from national health offices.

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