China moves to stem Sars spread

By Louisa Lim
BBC correspondent in Beijing

The Chinese media says more than 600 people have now been placed in quarantine in Beijing to stop the spread of the Sars virus.

The latest Sars case started in a Beijing laboratory

More than 100 are also being isolated in the eastern province of Anhui.

There are two Sars patients and six suspected cases in the latest outbreak of the disease.

Sars killed nearly 800 people last year, but Chinese experts have said the probability of another crisis is very small.

Emergency measures are now kicking in, and more people are being isolated to stop the spread of the highly contagious disease.

This time it can be traced to a single source - a graduate student believed to have been conducting research on Sars at China's top virus laboratory.

The lab has now been closed and around 200 staff members placed in isolation.

But many fear the disease could already be spreading.

After all, it took nearly a month to confirm the student was infected. In that time she made several long train trips across the country, possibly exposing many people to the virus.

An official from the Beijing Centre for Disease Control has been trying to calm nerves. He says chances of an epidemic are low because this time the source of the virus is clear.

But it is just days before a week-long holiday when millions of Chinese travel around the country. If just one person were to unwittingly transmit the virus, the consequences could be deadly.