The World Health Organization (WHO) removed Singapore from its map of SARS hot zones yesterday as health officials in the city-state urged vigilance to avoid a Toronto-style relapse.
Yesterday, Hong Kong and China reported a total of eight more deaths from SARS, but in a further sign the disease appears to have slowed in Asia, had only four new cases.
In Canada's largest city, Toronto, which last week suffered a renewed outbreak of the disease, there was another SARS death and 10 more cases Friday.
The global death toll was at least 764 with more than 8,300 people sickened since the virus first appeared in southern China in November.
The WHO removed Singapore from its list of countries affected by the SARS virus, saying it was 20 days -- twice the virus' maximum incubation period -- since the last locally acquired case was placed in isolation.
"From the start, Singapore's handling of its SARS outbreak has been exemplary," said Dr. David Heymann, executive director for communicable diseases at the WHO. "This is an inspiring victory that should make all of us optimistic that SARS can be contained everywhere."
The city-state has reported a total of 206 cases, 31 of them fatal, and the incoming health minister urged vigilance to avoid a Toronto-style relapse.
"I think Toronto's new outbreak is a great reminder to everyone," Khaw Boon Wan told reporters. "I'm reading reports from Toronto saying that the reason for this new outbreak is that they let their guard down too soon."
Toronto's cluster of new cases was a harsh blow to a health-care system that appeared to have brought the largest SARS outbreak outside Asia under control. Health officials have told more than 7,800 people to quarantine themselves. A 57-year-old man who died on Thursday raised the overall death toll to 30.
In Hong Kong yesterday, health authorities reported four more SARS deaths, including a doctor, and three new cases.
Meanwhile, Beijing announced it was cutting the number of its hospitals set aside to treat SARS patients from 16 to seven, encouraged by a fall of over 90 percent in newly reported cases since early last month.
The city also plans to lift an order that closed gymnasiums and sports facilities a month ago, said Cai Fuchao, a member of the Chinese capital's Communist Party committee, though he didn't give a date.
The announcements came amid signs that business and daily life in Beijing are starting to return to normal after weeks of public anxiety and anti-disease measures that closed schools and quarantined tens of thousands of people.
China reported four new SARS fatalities yesterday and single new case -- all in Beijing -- raising its death toll to 332.
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