Posted on 04/23/2003 8:16:05 AM PDT by blam
Sars travel alert extended
Schools are closing in Beijing, affecting 1.7 million pupils
International travellers are being advised not to visit Toronto, Beijing and China's Shanxi province because of the danger of Sars. The World Health Organization (WHO) has added the three destinations to Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province as it tries to halt the spread of the deadly virus.
The new warning came as it was announced that nine more people had died of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on the Chinese mainland and six in Hong Kong.
The official death toll worldwide now stands at 251.
KNOWN DEATH TOLL China: 106 Hong Kong: 105 Singapore: 16 Canada: 15 Vietnam: 5 Thailand: 2 Malaysia: 2 Full global update Are you affected?
Dr David Heymann, WHO's communicable diseases chief, said the three new areas on its advice list had "quite a high magnitude of disease and a great risk of transmission locally - outside of the usual health workers".
He said the areas had also been exporting cases to other countries.
The travel warning will be active for at least three weeks - double the maximum incubation period for Sars, he said.
Speaking in Rome, WHO Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland said the spread of Sars was "a challenge to everyone".
She said Sars was "a new virus disease, a new type, more malignant" and that "every country has to be prepared".
Cluster of cases
A spokesman for the Ontario provincial health ministry in Canada, John Letherby, described the WHO's inclusion of Toronto as "regrettable".
"It's not something where we're seeing the effects of the magnitude of the equivalent of a China," he said.
The WHO had praised the tough measures taken by Canada's business capital but has seen Sars continue to spread in the community there.
Ontario health officials called WHO's inclusion of Toronto regrettable
"Toronto last week had an exportation which set up a cluster of five cases in health workers in another country," Dr Heymann said.
The authorities in Beijing have meanwhile announced that all the capital's schools will be closed for two weeks in an effort to halt the spread of the virus.
The decision will affect more than 1.7 million children and comes as China struggles to contain an outbreak which officials first tried to play down.
The nine deaths announced in mainland China on Wednesday included seven in Beijing, taking the total to 106 deaths among 2,305 cases.
Shanxi is one of the worst-hit provinces in China and was among the first to report the emergence of Sars cases.
Hong Kong, which has also been hit heavily by the Sars virus, has announced a HK$11.8bn ($1.5bn) economic package to lessen the impact of the outbreak.
The death toll in Hong Kong stands at 105, with the total number of cases at 1,458.
As well as affecting China and Hong Kong, the Sars virus has spread to many other parts of the world, with the total number of cases now put at more than 4,000.
Among other developments:
Police in Australia are given new powers to round up and quarantine suspected Sars victims
Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, stops issuing pilgrimage visas to many East Asian countries because of Sars fears
Singapore's prime minister vows to jail "irresponsible" people who violate quarantine laws
Despite having no confirmed Sars cases, Japan announces plans to install a thermal imaging camera at Tokyo's international airport to screen passengers
Tourism continues to suffer, with Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific cutting 45% of its flights and Singapore reporting a 70% fall in visitor arrivals Sars appears to be caused by a new strain of the coronavirus, which may have "jumped" from animals to humans in the Chinese province of Guangdong.
Scientific teams are racing to produce a vaccine, but experts have warned that the process is both difficult and time-consuming.
Information campaign
The Beijing Genomics Institute said this week that the virus was "expected to mutate very fast and very easily".
Even when a vaccine is available, it may only offer limited - and temporary - protection, experts have said.
The BBC's Holly Williams in Beijing says the capital's school closures are a sign of just how worried China's leaders are.
The measure was taken to "protect the lives and health" of pupils, according to an official statement.
In another attempt to halt the spread of the virus, the Chinese authorities have launched an information campaign and started to disinfect public places.
Teams of workers in masks and rubber gloves have been spraying down planes, buses, trains and transport terminals.
New York — Major league baseball plans to recommend that its teams visiting Toronto in the coming weeks take precautions against the dangers of SARS.
The 10 teams visiting Toronto through the all-star break in mid-July will be advised against signing autographs, visiting hospitals, using public transportation and mingling with large crowds in the area.
Elliot Pellman, baseball’s newly hired medical adviser, will hold conference calls Thursday and Monday with the teams to provide information and take questions about severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The Toronto Blue Jays open a nine-game homestand Friday, beginning with the Kansas City Royals. The Jays are currently in Tampa.
Attempts to reach Jays president and CEO Paul Godfrey were not immediately successful Wednesday, but he told the Toronto Star that the SARS scare is keeping people away from Blue Jays games.
“Our day-of-game sales have also been affected,” he said, declining to give specific numbers. “The walk-up crowd is down.”
Calling it an “overreaction” by the public to “high-intensity media attention” he said there had been several cancellations of bus charters from the U.S.
Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said Pellman would make the calls “to settle people down” about SARS.
“He wants to bring people up to speed and to assuage their fears,” Levin said. Word that baseball was taking precautions was first reported by the Washington Post.
The World Health Organization has advised that people should postpone unnecessary travel to Toronto because of SARS.
Personally, I start considering SARS controlled when there are NO new cases reported in any country with an airport.
I'll go for no new cases regardless of the airport. (Don't all countries have airports?)
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