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Worldwide SARS fatalities rise to 217

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE April 22. With both China and its Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong registering nearly 100 deaths each, the upsurge in the international menace of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) stayed at an alarming level on Tuesday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is reported to have said in Geneva that almost 87 per cent of the global-scale SARS cases, estimated at 3861 as on Monday, had occurred in China and Hong Kong.

The total number of SARS fatalities globally was put at 217 as on Monday. Of these, 83 per cent of the deaths were traced to China and Hong Kong by the time the WHO took its latest count.

Two other places prominently affected by SARS are Singapore and Toronto.

Giving updated figures on Tuesday, the Chinese Ministry of Health said in Beijing that 97 SARS patients had died across the mainland, while the total confirmed cases of infection rose to 2,158.

The suspected SARS cases were 918 on the Chinese mainland. In Beijing alone, the disease accounted for 588 confirmed cases, including 100 health-care workers.

The WHO team, which had visited Beijing, has turned its attention to Shanghai too.

The Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, said the anti-SARS campaign was being treated as a national priority and promised the international community that the Central Government in Beijing would take steps to prevent SARS from spreading to the country's rural areas where, in the reckoning of the international institutions, the available medical facilities left much to be desired.

Mr. Wen promised help to Hong Kong and even Taiwan (which Beijing regards as China's province) in the fight against the SARS.

The updated figures in Hong Kong as of Tuesday were 99 deaths (including five in the last 24 hours) and 32 new cases that brought up the total number of afflicted persons to 1,434.

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