China reported its lowest daily numbers of SARS cases since April in the latest sign that the virus is retreating in Asia, but Canadian health authorities were on high alert, investigating four recent deaths possibly caused by SARS.
The economic impact of SARS keeps spreading. Northwest Airlines expects to furlough 150 more pilots because of cutbacks in Asian flights stemming from travelers' fears about the virus, the pilots' union said.
The global death toll was at least 767 with more than 8,300 people sickened since the virus first appeared in southern China in November. Most of the victims have been in China and Hong Kong.
China reported no new SARS fatalities yesterday and two new cases, the lowest figures for a single day since authorities began in April to report cases on a daily basis. The death toll remained at 332 out of 5,330 cases.
In hard-hit Hong Kong, the disease also seems to be tapering off, but three more deaths were announced yesterday, including Wong Kang-tai, 53, a ward attendant at the Prince of Wales Hospital, who was infected with SARS while taking care of patients in March.
Wong is the seventh front-line health-care worker in Hong Kong to die of SARS, among the territory's 281 fatalities.
Hong Kong's political leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, said he was deeply saddened by Wong's death.
The largest outbreak outside Asia has been in Canada's largest city, Toronto, where authorities thought they had beaten the disease until a new cluster of infections last month in two of the city's hospitals.
Autopsies on three of the four who died at Toronto's Rouge Valley Centenary hospital came back positive, although they are still not officially confirmed as SARS deaths.
Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public safety, said the deaths left health officials searching for more answers.
"No matter how well we do, it only takes one case to start it all over again," he said. This virus, he added, "is extremely difficult to control."
The city's official SARS death toll remained at 30, but the number of cases rose by three to 46. Some 7,350 people have been quarantined.
Meanwhile, trade ministers from the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum are set to meet in Thailand this week to sign off on an emergency plan to revive the region's tourism industry and other businesses that have been hard hit by the outbreak of SARS.
Economic growth rates across Asia have dropped because of the disease -- Taiwan by 0.9 percentage points, Hong Kong by 1.8, Singapore by 1.1 and China by 0.2 -- according to the Asian Development Bank.
Also see stories:
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS