BEIJING, April 14: Four more people have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China and 82 new cases have been recorded, the World Health Organization and the Chinese health ministry said on Monday.

Three of the deaths were reported in northern Shanxi province and one in Inner Mongolia, WHO spokesman Jim Rademaekers told AFP.

“There have been a total number of 74 new cases and four fatalities reported by Guangdong, Beijing, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia,” said Rademaekers.

The ministry of health later Monday announced through the official Xinhua news agency an additional six cases in Beijing, taking the number in the capital to 37.

The new deaths bring to 64 the total number of people who have died of SARS in China, with the total number of SARS cases climbing to 1,424 with the new cases in Beijing.

Rademaekers said there were 47 new cases in Shanxi, 18 in southern Guangdong province, seven in Inner Mongolia and two in Beijing.

In total, Guangdong has recorded 45 fatalities, Shanxi seven, Beijing four, Guangxi province three, Inner Mongolia three, Sichuan province one and Hunan province one.

Premier Wen Jiabao warned over the weekend that the situation in China remained “grave”, saying that fighting the virus was a top priority.

The mayor of Beijing on Monday admitted that SARS outbreak was first recorded in Beijing on March 1.

The revelation adds weight to claims by a military doctor that the scale of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Beijing was covered up because it clashed with the sitting of China’s parliament.

On March 19 a man and his wife from northern Shanxi province had died from atypical pneumonia—AFP