Chinese Premier admits Sars situation is 'grave'
After assuring the Chinese public for weeks that a deadly outbreak of disease was under control, Premier Wen Jiabao today admitted the “overall situation remains grave” as four new deaths and dozens of new cases were reported.
Wen said China’s economy, international image and social stability might feel the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), state media quoted him as saying.
“Much progress has been made in combating the disease, but the overall situation remains grave,” Wen said.
His comments were a striking change from recent assurances by the government and were the highest level admission that Sars is a threat to China.
The country’s official death toll hit 64 today, with three fatalities reported in northern Shanxi province and one in the Inner Mongolia region, also in China’s north, according to the UN’s World Health Organisation.
It said 47 new cases were reported in Shanxi and 18 in the hard-hit southern province of Guangdong.
The information was gathered yesterday from local health authorities and is part of daily reports to WHO, said Jim Palmer, a spokesman for the UN agency.
Also today, a health official in Shanghai said seven foreigners taken to hospital there in a special ward for foreign Sars cases have been found not to have the disease.
Doctors concluded they had colds and some have been released, said Song Guofan, the spokesman of Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau.
China has reported more than 1,300 cases of infection, most of them in Guangdong province, which has reported 45 deaths.
At the meeting Sunday, Wen called for stepped up scrutiny of planes, boats and trains, and for passengers believed to infected to be quarantined “without hesitation”.
He also demanded “effective and powerful measures to prevent the spread of the virus and immediate treatment to ensure people’s health”.
The communist government has been criticised abroad and by ordinary Chinese people for its slow release of information on the spread of Sars and how its people can protect themselves.
