China tackles Sars damage

Sars 'brought into the provinces by migrant workers'

China's cabinet has announced a series of measures aimed at minimising the economic impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).

State-run news agency Xinhua said the government had issued orders to local officials to ensure that crops were harvested and measures were taken to help tourism.

The cabinet also told businesses in Sars-hit regions not to "dismiss employees at will" but to do as much as possible to stabilise employment conditions.

But closed roads are making it difficult for suppliers to get goods to market, and shops and restaurants remain empty as both locals and foreigners shun public areas for fear of infection.

And the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, in Beijing, says that the very measures being put in place to try and prevent the spread of the virus - such as restrictions on travel - are the ones making economic activity increasingly difficult.

The global death toll from the Sars virus has now passed the 500 mark.

China - the worst affected country - reported six new deaths on Thursday, including the first fatality in the city of Shanghai, which brings its total to 225.

In other developments:

• In Hong Kong, the most badly affected region after mainland China, the number of deaths now stands at 208 after four elderly women died from the illness

• The World Health Organization (WHO) extends its Sars-related travel warning to Taipei in Taiwan, as well as the mainland Chinese city of Tianjin and the province of Inner Mongolia

• China has sacked or penalised more than 120 officials for their "slack" response to the Sars epidemic, state media reports

• Chinese basketball star Yao Ming says he plans to host a telethon on Sunday in his hometown of Shanghai to raise money for research into Sars.

The WHO has sent officials into China's Hebei province - which surrounds Beijing - amid fears of an epidemic in the countryside.

The number of reported cases of Sars in Hebei has doubled in the past week.

Officials believe the virus has been carried into the province by migrant workers who fled Beijing after news of the Sars epidemic in the capital became public two weeks ago.

"The situation there could be really bad," said WHO spokeswoman Mangai Balasegarem.

Civil unrest

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has warned that China's rural health care system is totally incapable of dealing with a major outbreak of the virus.

"At present there has not been a large epidemic in the rural areas, but we must be on high alert. Neglecting prevention work in the rural regions will not be tolerated," official media quoted him as saying.

There have been reports of civil unrest in rural China, as fears of Sars take hold.

In Chengde city, 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Beijing, at least 100 villagers overturned an ambulance and threw bricks when they suspected a Sars patient was being transferred to their local hospital, officials said.

The authorities rounded up 64 people for the rioting, in which several doctors were injured, the China Police Daily said.