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Fatalities soar, China closes schools

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE APRIL 23. As the fatalities caused by the virulent incidence of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in China crossed 100, with nine persons succumbing to the disease in the past 24 hours, the Chinese authorities today intensified their efforts to contain the spread of the new disease.

The most striking aspect of the new measures being taken by China was the mass closure of schools for nearly a fortnight. The objective was to protect the health of well over a million students in the context of Beijing's admission of the severity of the outbreak in China.

At one level, China continued to present a picture of business as usual by hosting India's Defence Minister and a ranking U.S. State Department official among others at this time. On a different track, though, it began to take the SARS crisis very seriously. Home quarantine of suspected patients was also being resorted to. The number of confirmed SARS-related deaths on the Chinese mainland was officially put at 106 today, even as the definitive cases were said to have gone up to 2,305.

Economic package

In China's Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, the authorities today unveiled an economic package worth about $1.5 billions to stimulate the economic activities that had suffered as a result of the SARS epidemic. With six more SARS-related deaths occurring in Hong Kong in the past 24 hours, the overall situation continued to stay grim. In Singapore, the Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, indicated, through an `open letter 'to the people, that tough measures would be taken through legislation and other means so that the disease could be controlled.

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