HONG KONG, April 8: Hong Kong on Tuesday gave the green light for more than 240 residents to leave SARS quarantine camps but also announced two more deaths and 45 new cases, the most in a week.

The residents of an apartment block in the Amoy Gardens residential complex, where 278 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) were discovered, will be allowed to return home provided they pass medical checks. They had been evacuated to remote holiday camps on April 1.

“We are satisfied with the progress of the disinfection work and believe that Block E flats which have been disinfected can be re-occupied after the expiry of the current isolation order,” a government spokesman said.

Earlier, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong’s health authorities said all but 17 of the 247 residents quarantined will be allowed home on Thursday if they are found to have no symptoms of the disease.

Authorities were also investigating on Tuesday whether cockroaches were spreading SARS.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has now infected 928 people in the former British colony and been blamed for 25 deaths, defying a series of government measures aimed at curbing the mystery illness.

A health department statement said the new victims were two men aged 74 and 81 who were already suffering from chronic disease.

The statement also said 18 of the 45 new cases were healthcare workers treating SARS victims at four different hospitals, and that 119 SARS patients were now in intensive care.

The World Health Organization issued an advisory last week warning travellers to avoid Hong Kong and Guangdong province in southern China.

SARS has now been blamed for the deaths of 104 people since it first emerged in Guangdong in November. More than 2,800 suspected cases have been detected in over 30 countries.

In Hong Kong much scrutiny has focused on the Amoy Gardens housing estate in densely populated Kowloon. Deputy health director Leung Pak-yin said investigators were exploring the possibility that cockroaches may have been responsible for infesting Block E.

Authorities have been targeting the waste system of the housing block and Leung said a massive clean-up was under way Tuesday to disinfect the complex.

“There is a chance that cockroaches may carry the virus,” Leung told local radio, saying the virus could then be spread through sewage pipes into people’s homes.

A spokeswoman for Hong Kong’s health authorities said later that all kinds of insects were being investigated.

“Different insects including cockroaches are being investigated,” she said. “An investigation is still going on.”

Earlier, health staff were seen collecting rats trapped in cages set in the infected building at Amoy Gardens.

Some 100 staff from the health, food and environmental hygiene departments donned caps, masks, protective glasses and white protective coats to begin the arduous task of cleaning flats.

Representatives from the 108 affected households were also brought in from the three quarantine camps wearing masks and protective coats, the spokeswoman said.

“They were allowed back to open the doors to the flats to enable workers to clean up their flats,” she said.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority (HKAA) said 142 flights into and out of the territory — 27 per cent of the total — were cancelled on Tuesday.

An HKAA statement said that so far 22 per cent of all flights scheduled for April had been cancelled.

At a press briefing late on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive Tung Chee-hwa urged the territory’s citizens not to panic over the virus, calling on the public to “take preventive measures such as maintaining good personal hygiene.”—AFP