SARS takes heavy financial toll on Toronto economy
Economic growth in Toronto will suffer this year because of SARS, as health authorities insisted the illness was under control in Canada's largest city.
The Conference Board of Canada lowered its 2003 growth estimate for the Toronto economy from 3.8% to 3.3% - or almost 1 billion Canadian dollars (€625,000).
It was the first firm estimate of the damage caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has overwhelmed the health care system and devastated the convention and tourism industry since first coming to Toronto from Asia in early March.
"The SARS outbreak will have a heavy impact on the tourism, transportation and retail trade sectors," said Mario Lefebvre, associate director of the Conference Board's national metropolitan outlook survey.
No new SARS cases were reported yesterday in Toronto, the epicentre of the largest outbreak of the illness outside of Asia with more than 140 probable cases so far and all of Canada's 23 SARS deaths.
Health officials complained that the city was still perceived as a SARS hot spot, like Hong Kong and Beijing, even though the number of active cases has decreased to 30 with few new ones reported in the past two weeks.
Dr James Young, the Ontario commissioner of public safety, said the city's notoriety meant that anyone from Toronto who gets sick abroad is still automatically suspected of having SARS.
Despite the announcement of a new probable case and a new suspected case, the illness remained under control with no sign of spread into the general community, Dr Young said.
Steps taken by Toronto health authorities have included isolating all suspected SARS cases, closing hospitals with SARS patients to new patients while restricting access to others, and telling more than 7,000 people possibly exposed to the illness to undergo a 10-day home quarantine.
The World Health Organisation travel warning was lifted on Wednesday, a week after it was announced, due to evidence from Canadian health officials that the illness was contained and promises to screen international travellers for SARS.
