TAIPEI-TORONTO, April 27: Taiwan banned visitors from areas most hit by SARS on Sunday and Beijing closed theaters, cinemas and other entertainment centers as the battle to contain the spread of the deadly virus opened up new fronts.

“Fighting the epidemic is like fighting a war. We face an invisible enemy,” Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun told a news conference that announced a ban on visitors from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, coupled with a 10-day quarantine for Taiwan residents returning from these areas.

Announcing the most draconian moves to date to control the often-fatal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Yu said Taiwan would stop issuing visitor and resident visas to people from the four SARS hot spots, and even those with multiple-entry Taiwan visas would be denied entry.

At least 316 people around the world have died from SARS, which started in China’s Guangdong province late last year. Air travelers have since carried it to more than 20 countries, triggering concern across the globe.

SARS, which kills about 6 per cent of the people it infects, has no known cure and a WHO official said on Saturday it may take years to find a SARS vaccine.

Well over two-thirds of the deaths have been in China and Hong Kong, the two worst-hit areas, although 21 people have died in Singapore and 20 in Canada.

There are more than 5,200 cases of the disease, and thousands of people have been placed in quarantine for the 10-day period that it takes the illness to develop. Hotels, airlines and retailers already face slumping sales and experts say the economic costs are bound to rise.

Canada, the only country outside Asia where people have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, dismissed Taiwan’s ban as excessive and insisted it would fight the measure.

“We believe that this measure is excessive and that it will cause considerable inconvenience to the traveling public,” said Kimberly Phillips, a spokeswoman for Canada’s ministry of foreign affairs. “Our officials are taking immediate steps to have this measure withdrawn.”

Canada is already fighting tooth and nail to persuade the World Health Organization to abandon a recommendation that travelers avoid nonessential travel to the Toronto area.—Reuters