China fears many new Sars cases

Patients were transferred to a new hospital by ambulance

Beijing is likely to continue seeing new cases of Sars at the current high rate of more than 100 a day, a city health chief has said.

But officials believe the outbreak is nearing its peak and the rate of infection could start to slow within 10 days.

China remains the worst-hit country and 11 new deaths announced there have pushed the worldwide toll over 400.

Friday's figures revealed 176 new cases across mainland China, 97 of them in Beijing.

The deputy director of Beijing's health department, Liang Wannian, said similar numbers of new infections could be expected in the coming days.

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 high pattern of the number of cases will continue for some time. I think it will take a long time for us to eliminate this disease," he said.

The death toll in China, where the pneumonia-like virus originated, has now hit 181, with 3,823 people infected.

In Hong Kong, eight deaths were announced but just 11 new cases.

Dr Liang said he believed Beijing would soon follow Hong Kong as he said the city had halted the rate of increase in the number of cases and predicted that it would eventually drop.

"I believe the number of patients will drop in the future, but it is hard to say when because we don't know a lot about the disease," he said.

New hospital

Shortly before Dr Liang made his comments, a new hospital - built in eight days to cope with the Sars outbreak - opened in Beijing.

The first 156 patients were moved into the hospital on Thursday night and some of the 1,200 military medical staff began work, China's official news agency said.

The outbreak has hurt the tourist trade

State media also reported that a majority of students from neighbouring Vietnam studying in China were expected to leave.

More than 2,000 Vietnamese students - 80% of the Vietnamese student population in China - were expected to flee.

Vietnam, which shares a long land border with China, was hit early by a Sars outbreak, but declared this week that it had contained the epidemic.

No new cases have been reported there for more than three weeks.

There have been reports that Vietnam has unofficially begun barring Chinese tourists from entering the country.

In Singapore, another country that has taken firm measures to control Sars, the government has publicly rejected a number of myths surrounding the disease.

Neither drinking alcohol nor abstaining from pork has been shown to have any anti-Sars effect, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the public.

No racial group is immune, and smoking does not ward off Sars, he said in an effort to dispel rumours and quack cures.

While the Sars virus continues to spread in China, other badly affected regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada have now got the outbreak under control, according to the World Health Organization.