Hong Kong's sorrow-tinged celebrations

By Francis Markus BBC, Hong Kong

School children celebrated by waving their face masks in the air

As the World Health Organization made its expected announcement - that Hong Kong was coming off its list of Sars-infected areas - dragon dancers cavorted in the heart of Kowloon.

Elsewhere, school children tossed aside their surgical face masks - a ghostly symbol of fear at the height of the epidemic, which claimed nearly 300 lives in Hong Kong.

The announcement came after the territory completed 20 days without new Sars infections and followed the lifting of the WHO's travel advisory late last month.

The WHO's executive director of communicable diseases, David Heymann, called the development a "very significant achievement".

"Hong Kong, with its dense population and fluid border with China, had one of the hardest outbreaks to control," he said.

"This success means that the whole world can now feel safer from the Sars threat."

But the WHO has warned Hong Kong to remain vigilant against the kind of recurrence of Sars seen in Toronto.

The Canadian city found itself back on the Sars-infected list after only 12 days and the disease claimed two more lives there at the weekend.

The Chinese capital Beijing and Taiwan also remain listed as Sars-infected.

The note of caution was echoed by Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, even as he welcomed the WHO announcement.

"Our name has been removed from the list, but from experience everywhere else, we have to remind ourselves that this could come again," he said.

Vulnerability

Mr Tung was speaking at Amoy Gardens, the housing estate that suffered the worst outbreak when 329 residents were infected via faulty sewage pipes, leaving at least 42 people dead.

He added that the good news was accompanied by "a great deal of sorrow."

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa urged caution

The lingering pain is not only personal but also economic.

The epidemic is estimated to have cost Hong Kong billions of dollars in economic damage.

The economy was already in a fragile state before the virus struck. Sars has helped to propel the unemployment rate to a record high of 8.3%.

Selina Chow, head of Hong Kong's Tourism Board, said she expected about one million visitors to come to the territory per month from mid July to mid September.

By comparison, about 430,000 came in May as the Sars epidemic began to tail off.

But speaking after the WHO announcement, she said it would take about a year for the number of tourists to return to pre-Sars levels.

The political fallout from Sars has also been significant.

The Hong Kong authorities' initial slow response to the virus came under widespread criticism.

The spread of Sars - fuelled by the Chinese authorities' initial cover-up - from nearby Guangdong province, underlined Hong Kong's vulnerability to events within China beyond its control.