Beijing's mayor says SARS 'remains severe'
Beijing’s new mayor today said the SARS outbreak “remains severe” in the Chinese capital and hospitals designated to handle the disease do not have enough beds for all suspected cases.
“I think the coming week will be of critical importance in monitoring the trend of development of this disease,” Mayor Wang Qishan said at a news conference.
Beijing had 1,347 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome as of yesterday, according to a written statement distributed at the start of Wang’s news conference.
“The situation in Beijing remains severe for SARS prevention and treatment. Infections have not yet been cut off.
Numbers of confirmed and suspected SARS cases remain high,” the statement said.
“Due to a shortage of berths at designated hospitals, not all suspected SARS patients can be hospitalised there in a timely manner.”
The city has designated 21 hospitals to handle SARS cases, Wang’s statement said.
It did not say how the suspected cases that were not in hospitals were being handled, but a special 1,000-bed SARS isolation unit is under construction north of the city.
Wang was appointed last week, replacing a former Beijing mayor who was accused of mishandling the outbreak.
Wang denied rumours that authorities were planning to seal off the capital – a city of 13 million people – or dust it from the air at night with anti-SARS medications.
“We haven’t made any such decisions,” he told reporters. ”There is no issue of sealing off the city, according to the present situation.”
Rumours that martial law might be declared or Beijing closed spread last week after police roadblocks were set up to check people in vehicles for SARS symptoms and the city said it would seal off buildings or areas with infections.
Worries about the disease prompted thousands of people to flee Beijing last week.
The city has “segregated” 8,924 people who might have been exposed to the virus, according to the city government.
That includes students who are quarantined in dormitories at two universities, Wang said.
He said Beijing Communist Party Secretary Liu Qi had visited the students, who he said were still in good health but had been quarantined because they had contact with people who were found to have Sars.
“For college or university students, we still advise them to stay on campus,” the mayor said.
Wang also tried to assure the public about the accuracy of the government’s announcements about Sars, saying anyone who tried to cover up information “will be dealt with severely”.
But he would not say whether Beijing officials who have been accused of concealing information earlier might be prosecuted.
“This falls into the category of our legal system,” he said.
