China, widely accused of covering up the initial outbreak of SARS earlier this year, says it is pulling out all the stops to prevent a resurgence.
"China has more to lose than anybody else if SARS returns and it's not contained," World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng said in Beijing after a scientist in Singapore tested positive for SARS, the world's first infection for three months.
"It's extremely hard to hide this disease and if China is caught covering up again they'll be ruined."
After failing to admit the seriousness of the outbreak which critics blame for the worldwide spread of the virus, China tallied about 5,300 cases and more than 340 deaths. Nearly 8,500 people were infected globally and more than 800 died.
"Our internal work to prevent a resurgence of SARS has not slackened for a moment," the Health Ministry said on its Web site at www.moh.gov.cn. It advised people not to mistake the government's steps to block SARS for an actual outbreak.
Beijing airport was keeping planes from Singapore away from the main terminal and passengers from the city-state would undergo separate health checks, state media said. Shanghai adopted similar measures.
The 1,000-bed Xiaotangshan Hospital, built in a week north of Beijing to handle a glut of SARS patients, could be operational within a couple of days, officials said.
The outbreak ravaged sectors of the Chinese economy, like travel and tourism, and Beijing sacked the health minister and capital's mayor for mishandling the outbreak.
Since the last two SARS patients in China left hospital on Aug. 16, the Health Ministry has continued to demand that hospitals report daily even if there are no cases.
* Virus first recognized in China on Nov. 10 last year
* The WHO issues a global alert on March 12 this year
* Nearly 8,500 peope infected worldwide, with more than 800 deaths
* The WHO declares the virus contained on July 5
* Singapore reports a new case on Sept. 9
Source: WHO
The WHO and the ministry would also test a new monitoring system to identify and track clusters of cases, Cheng said.
Anti-SARS vigilance was on display at central Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital, accused by the WHO of failing to report some milder cases as the epidemic tailed off in late May.
In the hospital's dank corridors, masked men pointed temperature guns at the hands and necks of a constant stream of people passing from ward to ward.
One attendant told a reporter that fever patients now went directly to the hospital emergency room, rather than its special fever ward. But another corrected him and led the way to the hospital backyard, where the makeshift ward was still operating at full strength and a guard outside handed the visitor two masks.
He had not heard of the new SARS case in Singapore. "New case in Singapore, huh? Well, we never let up here. They keep saying that with the weather changing, SARS could always come back."
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