Thousands of people have come out of quarantine in Beijing where SARS infection rates have fallen, and the World Health Organization said yesterday that there would not be another upsurge of the deadly disease in China.
The Ministry of Health reported 10 new deaths, including five in Beijing, yesterday, bringing the mainland tally to 262 fatalities.
The mainland also had 80 new cases, bringing the total to more than 5,000 known cases of infection.
In Beijing, about 10,000 residents were in isolation - down from a peak of about 16,000 last week.
Alan Schnur, a WHO official based in Beijing, said the SARS situation now in China is very much different from even a month ago.
With the strengthening of SARS education, people are more aware of the contagious disease and are fully prepared to control and prevent the illness, Schnur said.
He predicted there would be no further SARS upsurge in the country such as what happened in Guangdong Province and Beijing.
James Maguire, another member of the international organization who just finished an inspection in Hebei Province, said he was confident he would see that China could control the SARS epidemic under its improved surveillance and health-care system.
He said the drop in the number of China's SARS cases in recent days was "encouraging," but warned it was too early to say that the disease was declining.
Liang Wannian, deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau, told a press confer-ence yesterday that the city will ensure every SARS patient has access to hospitals any time and any place.
China is accelerating the construction of public health infrastructure, the State Development and Reform Commission said yesterday.
The commission asked all localities in China to increase funds and accelerate the construction of medical facilities for emergencies and a nation-wide network for disease prevention and control.
