Taiwan outbreak 'stable'

Canadian health officials are monitoring 33 people for the Sars virus with another 500 in quarantine just 10 days after the World Health Organisation said the virus was no longer spreading in the country.

While hospital emergency rooms in Canada's biggest city went back on high alert, hard-hit Taiwan spurned an offer by rival China to help the self-governing island fight Sars and said its outbreak was under control.

Hong Kong, with the second largest number of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome after mainland China, reported another four deaths and one more case, a day after it reported no new infections for the first day since Sars hit the city in March.

Health officials in Toronto said the public should not panic, but the news has prompted the US Centres for Disease Control to tell travellers to take care if they visit the city.

"This is still an institutional outbreak," said Donald Low, chief of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital. "This is not a disease that does well in the community."

For several weeks it seemed Canada's battle with Sars was nearly over. No new cases had been recorded since April 19, a month after the outbreak started in Canada.

The possible Sars cases, up from 25 on Friday, raised concerns that the WHO may again slap a travel advisory on Canada's financial hub.

"Economically, this is far worse than the fallout from the terrorist attacks," Rod Seiling, president of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, said.

The disease has killed 24 people in the Toronto area, the only place outside Asia where there have been Sars deaths. Officials are also investigating two more deaths to determine if they are Sars related. Worldwide Sars has killed about 700 people and infected more than 8,000 since it appeared in southern China late last year.