WHO extends travel warnings

The World Health Organisation yesterday advised against travel to two more provinces in China and the main city on Taiwan, as WHO experts headed to China's hinterland where they fear Sars is beginning to spread fast.

The WHO extended its Sars-related travel warning yesterday to the provinces of Tianjin and Inner Mongolia as well as Taipei, capital of Taiwan. Taipei officials said SARS had probably spread into the community and the next five days would be crucial.

The latest travel advisories came after the WHO said the death rates from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome may be 14-15 per cent - and up to 55 per cent in people 60 and older - significantly higher than its previous estimate of 5-6 per cent.

WHO experts say China is key to containing the global spread of the flu-like virus, which has now killed more than 500 people and infected more than 7,300.

China's Health Ministry said yesterday five more people had died of Sars, including the first in its commercial capital of Shanghai, and another 146 had been infected - roughly the same daily toll as in previous weeks.

China has had 4,698 cases, the bulk of the world's total, and its death toll now stands at 224.

With no sign the epidemic is under control in the world's most populous country, the government and WHO fear Sars could spread like wildfire through the hinterland, where health services are often poor.

WHO's head of communicable diseases David Heymann said the agency was still hopeful that China could stamp out Sars.

"If the government fully commits and commitment includes making the necessary resources available...this disease can be contained and we are still hopeful it can be driven back into the box," he told a news conference.

Four WHO health experts headed yesterday to Hebei province, where the number of probable cases has risen sharply, to see if healthcare systems there could cope with a Sars outbreak.

The province almost surrounds Beijing, which has the world's highest number of Sars cases and is home to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers - many from Hebei.

In China's countryside, fear of Sars has led to some villages setting up roadblocks to keep away people from Beijing and at least four riots against quarantine centres have been reported in recent days. Thousands of people have been quarantined in China.

The Sars virus surfaced in southern China late last year and has been spread around the world by travellers.

The WHO travel advisory against Taipei came as Taiwan reported another 22 probable and suspect cases, taking the island's infections to 360, third highest after China and Hong Kong. The death toll remains at 13. The Taipei American School, which has 2,100 students, said it has closed for the year.

The UN health agency had already advised against travel to Beijing, the provinces of Guangdong and Shanxi, and Hong Kong.

Russia, with a 3,600-kilometre frontier with China, has closed some Far East border crossings to try to prevent the epidemic's spread and has said it might order a halt to "all air travel to airports in China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan".

China said yesterday it has punished more than 120 officials in the past month for covering up the extent of the Sars outbreak or failing to prevent the spread of the virus, the Web site of the Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

Officials in 15 provinces and major cities were sacked, suspended, warned or demoted for deserting their work, delaying reporting or covering up the number of infections and deaths.

Hong Kong, the worst Sars-hit area outside mainland China, reported four more deaths and seven new cases yesterday, the lowest number of infections reported since the outbreak began.

While Sars appeared to be under control in most places outside China, it has wreaked havoc on economies in the region.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Wednesday Sars would slow East Asia's economic growth by half to one per cent this year. A total of 27 people have died of Sars in Singapore though it has seen new cases in the last four days.

China's premier Wen Jiabao has warned the public Sars would have a severe impact on the world's sixth largest economy.

Sars has already battered the airlines, tourism, retail, hotel and restaurant sectors around Asia and forced the cancellation or postponement of a number of sports, business and cultural events.