China in Sars clampdown

The spread of Sars has caused anger throughout China

Chinese authorities have quarantined 10,000 people in the eastern city of Nanjing in a bid to contain the Sars outbreak which has claimed 206 lives in the country and infected 4,280 people.

In Beijing, the worst affected city, where 103 people have died, public access to all reservoirs has been closed amid fears that the disease could reach the water supply.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited affected areas on Monday, saying some progress had been made in battling the disease, but that a great deal of work needs to be done to bring the epidemic under control.

In a sign that the disease might be spreading further, Colombia's Deputy Health Minister Juan Gonzalo Lopez said the first probable case of Sars in the country had been detected.

The head of the World Health Organisation, Gro Harlem Brundtland, is due to brief European Union health ministers at a special session on Tuesday on ways of containing the outbreak.

According to the European Commission there have been about 100 probable or suspected cases of Sars in Europe. So far, no one has died.

Emergency measures

In Beijing Mr Wen said that the city's municipal government had adopted a number of measures to battle Sars, but that "the key is implementing them".

It is hoped the disease has peaked in Hong Kong

"It is very important to do the job well in Beijing, which is the capital and the political and cultural centre of the country," Mr Wen said.

Mr Wen was speaking as he inspected Xiaotangshan Hospital in the northern suburbs of the capital where more than 7,000 workers have built the facility in eight days to house Sars patients.

Turning the corner

Correspondents say Sars has sparked fear and anger throughout China, with riots occurring in rural areas where officials have decided to set up quarantine centres.

The BBC's Beijing correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says officially around 16,000 of the city's population are now in quarantine, but unofficially all 13 million are under a virtual quarantine, our correspondent says.

Leaving the city is becoming increasingly difficult, as flights to other areas are cancelled and highways blocked.

But in other countries it looks like the battle against Sars is starting to be won.

Hong Kong reported three more fatalities, the lowest single-day death toll since 12 April.

"We are pleased the daily Sars cases continued to drop to the single digits," Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa said, adding that he hoped the World Health Organisation travel ban there would be lifted soon.

In Taiwan two more people have died and a 27th victim died in Singapore, but in Canada just one suspected case was reported on Sunday, fuelling the idea that the disease had been brought under control there.