April 3, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 30, 1424

HONG KONG, April 2: Hong Kong’s chief executive Tung Chee-hwa played down a World Health Organisation (WHO) advisory warning against travel to the territory on Wednesday, saying the battle against the deadly SARS epidemic was being won.

The World Health Organization urged travellers on Wednesday to avoid Hong Kong and China’s southern Guangdong province, saying hundreds more cases of a deadly pneumonia virus were reported there.

It was the first warning the United Nations’ body has ever issued for health reasons. Earlier travel warnings were concerned with war or other conflicts.

In his second briefing since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) took hold, Tung said there were 23 new cases of the illness in Hong Kong, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the territory to 708.

Tung emphasised that the number of people catching the disease had fallen, compared, with 75 new cases on Tuesday, 80 on Monday and 60 on Sunday. The disease has claimed 16 lives in Hong Kong and 78 worldwide.

Tung insisted the government was making progress in stemming the outbreak.

Thailand and the Philippines tightened restrictions on travellers arriving from areas affected by a deadly pneumonia outbreak, with Bangkok warning that even those without symptoms of the illness must wear masks at all times or face jail or fines. Australia has issued a travel warning against journeying to Hong Kong and other SARS-affected areas.

Hong Kong traders were also banned from attending a watch and jewellry fair in Switzerland.

Tung said the WHO’s warning was being widely observed even before the organisation issued the advisory.

“This is understandable, what the WHO has done is merely a confirmation of what is already happening,” he said.

WHO said it issued the rare advisory earlier on Wednesday because it did not fully understand how the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus was being transmitted in Hong Kong and neighbouring Guangdong.

Hong Kong’s Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-Kiong said health officials were still to determine how the disease was spread, fuelling fears the illness could be airborne.

Despite the government’s show of confidence the Hong Kong public has been deeply affected by the outbreak — so much so that for two days straight the government has been forced to announce that Hong Kong would not be declared an infected area and quarantined from the rest of the world.

Hong Kong’s citizens are wearing medical masks when venturing outside their homes, schools and universities remain closed and a new level of hygiene has hit the city.

Secretary for economic development and labour, Stephen Ip, said it was too early to tell what impact the epidemic would have on the economy.

“A lot will depend, I think, on how long this will last,” he said.

“I hope this won’t last long. As I said, we are working together with the industry and there will be measures to win back the confidence of travellers in the future.”

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday placed its major hospitals on standby to treat suspected SARS cases and alerted airports and ports to screen passengers, officials said.

Three national hospitals, including the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences, were readied to treat anyone with the symptoms of SARS that has claimed at least 75 lives and infected about 1,900 people in 22 countries.

Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said no cases of the SARS had been reported in the country so far while health authorities ruled out issuing masks even to medical staff in a bid to prevent panic gripping the country. The chief of India’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Shiv Lal, said state governments were under orders to shift anyone with symptoms of the disease to pre-designated hospitals capable of treating infectious diseases.

“We have informed them (the states),” Lal told a press conference.

“Passengers are being screened at the four main international airports to a point where some of them are complaining of harassment but we are not quarantining everyone coming to India,” Lal said.—AFP