HK eases school Sars restrictions

Officials say the children will still wear masks as a precaution

Around 250,000 primary school students in Hong Kong have returned to school after a six-week closure aimed at preventing the spread of the deadly Sars virus.

Although there is, as yet, no evidence that Sars spread through schools, students are being required to wear masks at all times and undergo daily temperature checks as a precaution, officials said.

Secondary school students in Hong Kong had already been permitted to return to classes.

But officials have delayed kindergarten children from attending school for at least another week, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Hong Kong has had the second most serious outbreak of Severe Acute Respirataory Syndrome, but the number of new cases has levelled off in recent days.

The territory reported three more deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number to 218, while Taiwan reported at least six new deaths and China said that 12 more people had died from the illness.

In other developments:

• Another 4,000 people were put into quarantine in the Chinese capital, Beijing, a total of 23,000

• Officials in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou sent 1,000 sanitary workers into the streets to stop people spitting, in an effort to curb the spread of Sars

• A second "probable" case of Sars is reported in South Korea, after an elderly US citizen falls ill on a return flight from the Philippines

• The University of California at Berkeley reverses a decision to ban students from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan from attending summer school

Shift to provinces

The number of people quarantined in Beijing was raised to 23,000, an increase of 4,000, on Monday, officials said.

SARS WORLDWIDE

Known death tolls:

World: 812

Mainland China: 348

Hong Kong: 298

Taiwan: 84

Singapore: 32

Canada: 38

Source: WHO/local authorities

Global update

The number of infections continues to rise across China, with five new deaths reported on Sunday, bringing the nationwide toll to 240.

However new infection rates in the country have dropped dramatically in recent days, raising hopes that the virus rate may soon be contained.

The World Health Organization has now shifted its attention to the country's provinces, sending teams to three provinces as it tries to gauge just how fast the virus is spreading.

Spokesmen for the WHO have praised China's recent efforts to contain Sars, but they say they still lack important information that would enable them to determine how the virus is moving through the Chinese population.

Diagnosis refuted

On Monday Finland reported its first case of the illness after a man who had visited the Canadian city of Toronto fell ill.

However health officials in Canada rejected the diagnosis, saying that their Finnish counterparts had jumped to conclusions.

"Unless somebody managed to visit one of our hospitals despite the restrictions... they couldn't have been exposed - it's that blunt," the Ontario health commissioner told AP.

"I'm sure the [Finnish patient] had some respiratory symptoms and, simply put, was diagnosed with Sars because the person had spent some time in Toronto."